


Honorary Family

by Rangerskirt



Category: Castlevania (Cartoon), 悪魔城ドラキュラ | Castlevania Series
Genre: Adrian ages normally, Angst, Blood Drinking, Branding, Consensual Underage Touching, Domestic, Drama, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Sexual Content, F/M, Families of Choice, Family, First Time, Fluff, Grief/Mourning, Hunters, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, Kissing, Lisa Lives, M/M, Mutual Pining, Romance, Slow'ish Burn, Some minor plot towards the end, Survivor Guilt, Teen Hijinx, Teen fic, Time/Age Skip Progression, Trevor Whump, Vampires, adult fic, based on the netflix series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-08-26 20:05:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 14
Words: 53,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16688047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangerskirt/pseuds/Rangerskirt
Summary: Trevor is only twelve when his family and home are burned and taken away from him, a month on his own in the wilderness is harder than it sounds when a kid is in that mindset. One desperate night he plans to steal some food and medicine from a home and ends up intervening when Lisa is being threatened by the church and saves her life but is taken in her place.After almost being burned himself Trevor wakes up in the famous Dracula castle being taken care of, he bonds with Lisa quickly but has a harder time learning to trust Dracula and Adrian due to his upbringing.---Or in which Trevor saves Lisa and ends up being semi-adopted by the Tepes family, he and Adrian have an odd relationship. They get at each other's throats but are also partners in crime a lot of the time. It might take Trevor a while to figure out what exactly this feeling is that isn't quite brothership but is definitely more than just friends.





	1. Part I: Kid Arc

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Not sure how long this is going to be but I'll try my best to update as regularly as I can. Some of the tags will be coming up in future chapters and I'll probably add some tags as this continues along. (Also I really want to add Sypha somewhere but right now I have no idea where or how. I want my favorite lady in this.)

Survival. His bloodline had always survived and young Trevor refused for it to end so suddenly on his behalf, not to monsters or humans alike. For a long month the boy had been trying his best to survive after what the church had done to his family home, staying out of villages and out of sight so not to be caught like a rat in a trap.

It wasn't that he wasn't very good at surviving on his own but Trevor was hurt and had nothing but a knife and the clothes on his back to get what he needed to live. He managed to hunt and cook small animals enough to feed himself, most days at least, but his wounds were festering and his mind wasn't in the right place. It hadn't been since that day almost a month ago, he didn't think about most things now but just ran on auto-pilot like an animal moving on instinct to live.

The burn wound in his side was aching him the worst so there he was sneaking around the edges of the nearest Village he'd found, Lupu Village, and on his luck he'd been staking out a local Doctor's place and waiting for a good time to sneak in and steal some medicine, maybe some food as well. He didn't want to hurt anyone but the knife was held strong in his hand just in case.

He watched blankly, an animal watching his prey for the right time to move, he watched as the blond woman escorted an elderly lady out the front door, he watched people from the church barging their way in through the front door and screaming about witchcraft. The men dragged the woman out and that's when he moved, slipping inside without being seen but finding the house a mess from those bastards handiwork, a little area set up to start a large fire soon.

There was no witchcraft here, Trevor didn't recognize everything or know much about any of it but his parents had been strong believers of the old sciences and magic. It was old knowledge, nothing to do with monsters, demons, or satan.

"She will be judged at the stake for these crimes, cleanse this place with fire." he heard a loud voice demand through the open windows and door. Looking at the knife in his hand something snapped back together in Trevor's mind at that moment, that woman didn't deserve to die...the church was going to burn her just like his parents, his entire family.

Not on his watch.

He ran out the front door and barreled his head straight into the man holding that blond woman by her arms, "Leave her alone!" Standing in front of her Trevor held up his knife defensively, not planning to use it with how little strength he had and how many men there were, but they didn't know that. "You should run...Go!" he cried with a dry throat, it felt like he hadn't spoken even to himself in at least three weeks.

Wrestled to the ground two of the men ran after the Doctor, and so they waited. When the two returned empty-handed Trevor just smirked, she'd gotten away. He still didn't want to die, it was the last thing he wanted but some light had swelled in his chest when that seemingly kind woman was dragged out into the cold evening. The thought of her changed in his mind to the last time he'd seen his parents, tied to stakes and their skin burning away from the flesh. Tears burned at his eyes and Trevor let himself be dragged away towards Targoviste's church to be judged.

They'd been debating if they should burn a child on the way back, that is until one of the men noticed the Belmont insignia on the back of his shirt. Without any other doubts when they returned he was tied straight to the post that had been set up sometime recently, they'd been planning to burn that poor woman even if she hadn't had anything weird in her house.

"Do you have any last words?" The Bishop asked him, holding a lit torch in one hand as a few of the other church members added last bits of wood to Trevor's pile and villagers gathered around.

Words hitched in his throat, his ancestors would roll over in their graves if they heard what he was going to say but he was so terrified, so scared and in pain. "Please...Please I don't want to die. I haven't done anything wrong."

"So you deny helping that witch escape, and you deny that you're a Belmont?"

"N...No, no I didn't say that. She wasn't a witch she was just-"

"Silence!" the man's voice boomed, "Even as children Belmont's only know lies and satanism. There's nothing to save from this young man. May God have mercy on your soul young man." the Bishop said without remorse and tossed his torch at Trevor's feet.

His body trembled as the boy felt the fire grow thicker around him and slowly approach his legs. Trevor bit his lip trying to hold everything back but it wasn't long after the flames tickled at his legs painfully that he began to scream and cry out.

Just as the pain was starting to become too much to handle a huge gust of wind rose from the ground and the flames completely were extinguished and then burst back up from the ground between Trevor and all of the church members and villagers like a wall, a wall with what looked like a face in it. "You humans truly disgust me..." Trevor had thought the Bishop's voice was loud and demanding but this one was far worse, it was deeper and louder and something about it rattled at Trevor's insides.

As the flames spoke violently to the people gathered before it, a softer voice came from next to Trevor and suddenly his legs and hands were free of the ropes. "Shh you're safe now young man, oh you look about ready to pass ou-" Standing up on his own Trevor's vision faded quickly and he fell with only a glimpse of blond in his fading vision before he was out.

In his sleep Trevor felt something warm and comforting like gentle hands caring for him, sometimes running through his hair. When he began to wake he muttered lightly, "Mama...?" But when he looked around it was a room he'd never seen before and two people standing not too far that he didn't recognize.

Scratch that, he'd seen the woman before. She was the Doctor from before that he was planning to steal medicine from, and likely the boy at her side would be her son? He had similar colored hair down to his chin and held onto the edge of her dress lovingly to watch what she was doing at the counter. "Adrian our guest is awake, why don't you go greet him and make sure he's not too scared." she said in a hushed voice.

"Yes mother."

Trevor's whole body felt lethargic and heavy like bags of sand weighed him down. "Hello, my name is Adrian Tepes, you're in my home being treated for your wounds.Do you need anything?" Reaching up Trevor touched at his throat and drank quickly when Adrian helped him get the cup to his lips and sit up to drink.

He coughed a few times then leaned back, "Th-Thank you." he half choked out, though his body was in pain Trevor could feel that absolutely all of his wounds new and old were treated with medicine and bandages. "Why are you staring at me?" his voice was slowly coming back but sounded scratchy still.

"My mother says that you were very brave, but I don't believe it. All you did in your sleep was cry out for your parents over and over." Adrian squinted his eyes, judging the injured boy in front of him.

"Adrian!" his mother scolded and stepped overseeing Trevor sitting up and glaring, about to argue or yell but from his sudden movements he began to cough. "I'm so sorry about my son, he's still learning the art of making friends." she said and gave her boy a look, Adrian just crossed his arms and scoffed lightly.

"What's your name young man?" she changed the subject, "Mine is Lisa Tepes."

"Trev...uh, Trevor."

"Trevor." she smiled sweetly, "Thank you so much for helping me, you saved my life." Her presence left a familiar warmth over Trevor's skin, his shoulders began to relax and he eased himself to sit up more properly back against the headboard. She looked nothing like his own yet reminded the boy completely of his own mother, sweet and caring but Trevor had the feeling that underneath that a fire burned and she wouldn't hesitate to throw herself into danger for her child.

And Tepes, that last name rung a bell in his mind but with everything happening so fast he couldn't place it right away.

"Where um...where am I exactly?" he was in their home presumably, but hadn't that small house in Lupu been the ladies home? She wouldn't be stupid enough to bring them back there after all the church had done.

"You're in my second home, well, my husband's castle." she responded seeing the query on the boy's face. "Don't worry, you're safe here. Now, you're still healing since it's only been two days so I don't want you to try and get up yet. Your legs are burnt a good deal, they need a lot of healing before you should walk again." Lisa said changing into doctor mode and walking over to the counter to pick up a tincture she'd been working on.

"Adrian dear, will you bring our guest some dinner please? It's time for him to take his medicine." The other boy stared for a long moment with his piercing eyes and arms crossed tightly over his chest with a small sneer on his lips. "Adrian." she lightly scolded.

"Yes mother." he whined before leaving the room.

"He's never met someone his own age before." the woman half apologized again, "I think with a little time he'll grow more used to you, maybe you two will even become friends." her voice was hopeful.

"Um.." Trevor's small voice perked up, hesitant to say what was on his mind. "How long do you expect me to be here?"

"Hmm, at least two weeks but if possible I'd like you to stay a full month so I can keep an eye on your recovery." her face started to become sullen suddenly, "Forgive me, you must have a home you need to get back to don't you?"

A heaviness filled Trevor's chest, he didn't want to talk about this, he didn't want to _think_ about this in the slightest. So he gave the shortest answer he could muster, "I don't."

"I see...then you're welcome to stay here as long as you need." she offered lightly and brushed a few strands of hair from Trevor's forehead. Setting her tincture next to Trevor's bed she spoke up again, "I need to go talk to my husband, drink all of that with your dinner when Adrian returns okay?"

"Uhm, yes ma'am."

Lisa's smile grew a little at the answer, "Ma'am..." she said under her breath with amusement, "Good boy." she said louder and then left the room.

It wasn't many minutes later when Adrian came back with a tray, he sat it over Trevor's lap and took his own plate and drink from it to start eating. "Did you dump that out somewhere?" he asked looking at the empty tincture glass.

"No? I drank it."

"What?" he sounded dumbfounded, "Those things taste awful, don't lie. If you dumped it somewhere I'll make you another one, mother's orders that you drink it."

"I drank it." Trevor said seriously and took a bite of his food, trying to be polite and not scarf it down with how good it smelled and how hungry his stomach burned. "Wasn't that bad." he muttered, honestly his starvation is why he'd drank it down so fast. He just wanted to get anything in his stomach that he could, which was also why he was taking god awfully big bites of his food that barely fit in his mouth.

"You're an annoyance..." Adrian scoffed and lifted his drink to his lips, a blood red drink...

Trevor nearly spat out his food but swallowed as his eyes grew wide and he grabbed the fork on his plate and exclaimed, "Y-You're a vampire!" Lisa hadn't been, he was sure of it but now looking at Adrian he was dumbfounded how it'd taken him so long to figure it out. He could see the tips of fangs as the other boy sat there calmly eating, the drink was blood there was no mistaking it.

"Just half, father is a vampire but mother is quite obviously human. Will you stop pointing that at me? If I wanted to kill you I'd have done it already."

Logic had already told him that, but he was a Belmont raised to kill monsters of the night. Having one sitting casually next to him drinking blood chilled him to the bone. Holding his utensil so tightly his fingertips began turning white.

"Then...I'll kill you before you decide to kill me." the boy threatened and stiffly began inching forward getting ready to stand out of bed. Adrian began to smirk and stood himself and stepped back a few feet, "You won't last ten seconds on your feet in that condition."

"Fuck you!" Trevor growled and climbed to his feet, wobbled, then steadied. Pain flared immediately, pain in every bit and muscle from his toe tips up Trevor's legs felt like they'd caught freshly on fire and he gritted his teeth. "Nn!" but still held his fork tightly.

Stubbornly he managed a single step, but then his legs wobbled and Trevor's mind felt hot and light and he couldn't cling to consciousness any longer. Hitting the ground hard he heard a voice say something before his mind went completely blank. "I stand corrected, you lasted eleven seconds."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trevor meets Dracula. He and Adrian have a bath fight much to Lisa's dismay. Then they all have dinner together.

The next morning Trevor was awake early but didn't get up, he'd learned from yesterday that he really wasn't in any condition to be up and about. He stayed on vigilante alert but no one came in or out of his room until quite a bit later, Lisa came in with a gentle expression. "Good morning Trevor, how are you feeling?"

The boy cut straight to the chase, "You know that vampires just see humans as snacks right?"

Lisa's expression dropped into something sadder with a hint of worry, "My husband and son are not monsters. They're different than us yes, and some vampires are bad but the same can be said about humans. Blood is just something they had to drink like how you and I need to drink water." Well when she put it that way Trevor was almost convinced, he would have been if he weren't a Belmont.

"You really think that..." he'd seen a few people hypnotized by a vampires magic before but Lisa showed none of the signs of any of that, firstly being that no vampire anywhere with self-respect would openly just have a child with a human. " I still don't trust them." But he mostly trusted Lisa.

Looking more relaxed she nodded, "Adrian is at that age where he's a bit of a brat but maybe with you around it'll humble him, and teach you to keep an open mind. It'd probably help if I introduced you to my husband soon too, he looks scary but deep down he's such a softy!" she giggled.

"O-...Okay." Trevor had a hard time arguing with the woman, somehow he really didn't want to ruin her perpetually kind mood. "Um, where do they get their blood then?"

"That's a fair question. My husband doesn't actually need blood but if he needs it I am a doctor, I don't mind donating a little here and there. As for Adrian, since he's half vampire he luckily doesn't need much. A tiny bit of my blood once a week or even some animal blood seems to sate his thirst easily."

This woman really didn't mind giving up her blood to these creatures? She gave it willingly...it left Trevor's mind in a tussle. He couldn't process such a thought.

The next four days were just filled with lounging in bed, drinking medicine, eating, and Lisa helping him to the bathroom in the room so he didn't have to use the embarrassing bedpan. He slept a lot not just because he was exhausted but out of boredom, once in a while for an hour or so Adrian would come and sit in the room in the far corner and just read a book. He didn't say a single word any of the times he'd done so even if Trevor said something first.

Usually just snarky remarks about vampires yielded nothing from the other boy, so on the fifth day Trevor was about to break. He was lonely and he had been for over a month with no one to talk to, he'd even accept the temporary company of a half vampire right now. "Um...what...what are you reading?"

Finally the other's bright eyes looked up from the book over at him, "The Odyssey by Homer."

"Oh um, I haven't heard of that one..." Trevor said awkwardly trying to make conversation and failing terribly. He gripped a hand into his bedsheets lightly, "What's it about?"

"Things far too complicated for someone like you to understand." Adrian smirked expecting a response, but instead Trevor looked away and didn't answer. The injured boy's cheeks felt hot and his stomach felt sick, fingers tightening in the tan sheets as a bout of anxiety ran through him. Whatever, why did he even try?

A long moment of silence lingered but finally Adrian's face softened just a little, "I could read it to you...if you wanted, then if you get confused I can explain it."

"Um, sure." Trevor's voice was small but the sick feeling in his stomach and chest began to lift, "I've got nothing better to do."

"Alright then, I'll start at the beginning. _Tell me, Muse, of that man of many resources, who wandered-_ " Trevor listened to the verses and felt soothed by each sentence read by him, he felt like he could listen forever. Around one hundred and fifty pages later Adrian was thankful Trevor fell asleep, his throat was getting dry.

After two more days and lots of breaks in between Adrian managed to finish The Odyssey and in tow, Trevor had as well. "Wow that was...pretty good."

"Agreed. My mother said you should be healed enough for a real bath today, thank goodness because you smell like you've been sleeping outside for a month." Trevor almost smiled, Adrian didn't know how right on the mark he was. "Good, I'm sick and tired of being in this bed constantly-hey! I do not smell that bad!" he huffed.

"You do. Trust me. I'm going to go run the bath now, you can use these and start practicing getting around with them before I come back for you." Adrian brought over some wooden crutches. They were harder to use than Trevor had imagined and though his feet still stung from the healing burns it almost felt good, it was nice just to put a little pressure on his feet and feel like himself again.

Sniffing his shirt the boy hissed, "Okay maybe I do smell...but fuck him for saying it" and for the first time Trevor made his way into the hall of the castle, since being brought there he hadn't left that room. He was brought meals and things and there was a bathroom connected so there was no need to leave it. Looking down each direction Trevor sighed, "Shit, which way is it?" The bathroom back in the room had a sink and a toilet but no washing area. He was impatient and honestly quite curious to see somewhere other than that room.

"Yooo!" he called loudly and listened to the hallway echoed it all back to him then shrugged, "How far could it be?" Picking a random direction Trevor slowly crutched his way along looking for an open door or listening for the sound of running water, anything signaling Adrian's presence and momentarily forgetting he was in the home of a likely powerful vampire.

"Hey vampire! If you want me to stop smelling I have to figure out where you went first!" he called out again after minutes of wandering aimlessly down corridors that all looked the same, a big mistake.

"Wow." his eyes went wide as he entered an area of the castle that looked quite different, less homey and more like a vampires den that Trevor had expected with suits of armor with weapons standing guard, cobwebs everywhere and lack of lighting though there were enough for him to see his way along. This area lacked a warmth so Trevor looked back the way he'd come, "Can I even figure out my way back...?" Should he try to go back, or continue forward and hope he came out somewhere that Lisa or Adrian would find him?

Before he was able to decide the hairs on the back of Trevor's neck stood up, there was no change in the lighting or air, nothing had given him a warning but somehow he immediately knew someone was behind him. The boy gasped and turned around to look but stepped straight into someone's stomach, someone tall.

The man was pale as moonlight with jet black and long hair, flowing clothes and prominent fangs, vampire his mind panicked while also noting that this must be Lisa's husband, Adrian's father. "Now what are you doing down this way little one?" his voice deep, low, and intimidating without even trying.

"I-I um...I was just uh..." Trevor stuttered and quickly shuffled his crutches back against the stone floor to put some distance between them. To his luck the boy moved just a smidge in the wrong direction, his crutch caught an indent of the floor and went clattering to the ground, Trevor almost with it if it weren't for two large and cold hands catching him under the armpits and lifting him up.

"So troublesome." The vampire was lightly smiling but Trevor didn't notice, he refused to look the man in the face. Scrunching up his nose the man shook his head, "That's right Lisa mentioned you were to take a bath today..." in a swift but strangely careful movement the fanged man tossed Trevor over his shoulder, scooped up the crutches and started walking down the hallway casually.

Trevor could feel the presence oozing from the bloodsucker, something his parents had always taught him to look for since your instincts could tell you a lot about the type of fight you were about to get into with a monster. He was at home and casual, calm and seemingly happy yet Trevor could feel so much power that radiated off of his shoulders, this vampire was extremely powerful and could likely killing him with a snap of his fingers. Without meaning to he shuddered a few times.

"Don't be afraid little one, I may be a monster but even monsters know when they owe a debt. And I certainly owe you one for helping my wife, you see I love her very much, you don't know how thankful I am to you for what you did." Such kind words didn't feel like they should match up with the strong aura but Trevor heard no lie in the man's tone, no hints that he was trying to persuade the boy into believing anything or fool him into a lulled sense of security.

"What is your name and how old are you exactly?"

Taking a moment to contain himself Trevor answered trying to sound strong but it came out slightly timid, "Trevor...I'm twelve."

"Twelve? Hm, a year younger than Adrian what a coincidence. My wife is convinced you two are going to be thick as thieves once you can start walking around freely." there was a soft chuckle in the back of the vampire's throat. "But where are my manners? My wife tells me I hardly have any, my name is Vlad Dracula Tepes. I'm sure you've heard of me."

Dracula, like _the_ Dracula who his parents and ancestors had been trying to kill off since the beginning of time? That didn't make him feel any better.

"By your silence I take it you have, that's fine I don't expect you to trust me but I do promise not to harm you. My wife is trying to instill some...humanity, in me. I can't say that it isn't working."

Trevor was carried only for a few more minutes before they turned into a much brighter room and instead of the light chill from the hallways the boy could feel a drafting warmth like from a running hot bath. "Adrian I found this wandering about unsupervised."

With a sigh and roll of his eyes Adrian said, "I told you that I'd come back to get you."

"Yeah but you were taking forever!" Trevor argued back, whereas in Dracula's presence alone he felt terrified but Adrian didn't give off that same sort of feeling, all Trevor felt towards the other boy was annoyance.

"Forgive me it's quite a large tub." Adrian said with heavy sarcasm just as Dracula plopped Trevor down safely in a chair and leaned his crutches next to it. "I'll leave you to it then son." he left with a loving single pat on the top of Adrian's head.

"S-So...your father is Dracula."

"Yeah, are you scared of me now?"

"Tch, I'm not scared of you! But him...he is...." terrifying, he didn't end up saying. Trevor's eyes landed on the bath Adrian was filling up, it was a huge tiled pit in the middle of the room big enough to fit a family of eight or big enough for just him to swim around in. "How do you get the water to pour out already hot like that?"

"My father put together a device in the basement that heats the water as it pumps." the blond took a string and started to pull his hair up into a small messy bun and kicked off his shoes and socks.

The blond boy undressed to his underwear and Trevor mimicked doing the same from his sitting position, leaving himself in just his underwear and all of his bandages. Slowly he peeled away all of the wraps, balled them up and tossed them into a trash bin but couldn't stop staring at the wounds. His skin looked like raw chicken all pink and freshly skinned but relatively healthy considering what had happened.

"I'm getting in the bath unless you need help." when Adrian didn't get an answer he stepped into the hot water and sat down, sighing as the heat soothed his skin. Like everything else getting himself inch by inch over to the bath and then sinking down into it hurt, fuck everything hurt, but like usual he stuck it out and sat there.

"If your father is Dracula then you have to be the person the townsfolks call Alucard right?" Trevor asked after a moment of settling down.

"I hate that name, I'm not my father but that doesn't stop people from calling me that." Adrian looked disdainful of the name, "Are you going to start calling me that then?"

With a slight smirk Trevor started to run hot water through his hair to wash it, "I dunno, haven't decided yet."

"I swear I'll kill you if you start using that name." the older boy threatened.

"No you won't, A-lu-card." Trevor's smirk grew, he was grinning ear to ear with pleasure of finding something that broke Adrian's normal perfect facade and cold attitude to make him seem more like the thirteen-year-old he was.

A splash of water hit Trevor in the face making him cough, but his smile remained and a flare of competitiveness sprung forward. "You wanna fight Alucard? You've got one." With a big swish of his arm a wave of water hit Adrian right back, soaking his face and pulled up hair, and leaving him with the sourest of looks.

Just a few splashes turned into a war of the bath water, splashes going everywhere and each boy occasionally yelling obscenities back at the other as they soaked the entire room. A higher pitched and angry voice shouted, "What do you two think you're doing!?" Lisa stood in the doorway with two sets of fresh clothes for the boys, now completely soaked through, as was her dress, her hair and well...her everything.

The boy's eyes met in a moment of truce with both of them frozen, "Mother we were just-...." his voice trailed off only to be finished by Trevor, "Playing. I'm sorry, we were just playing and we got a bit too into it."

Lisa wanted to be happy that the boys had just been playing but now the whole bathroom was flooded and she was _not_ going to be the one to clean it up. A smile pulled at her lips, but not the sweet one she usually had, no this was a sly one that said she had something up her sleeve. "I'm glad you two are getting along so well, then you won't mind as punishment having to clean up the bathroom together."

"What?' Adrian asked.

"Uh.." Trevor couldn't find it in himself to argue with that as much as he would rather do it himself than listen to Adrian whine or argue with him the whole time.

"Good." she held the wet clothes to her chest, "I'll bring you two some towels and mops, Adrian you do the floor and Trevor you do the walls and cabinets. If you get use the chair to sit while you dry, I'll get you two dry clothes and make you dinner after you do a thorough job."

She left just for a minute to go get what she'd mentioned. Their eyes met again, "You started it Adrian." Trevor quipped.

"Fuck-!..." the other started angrily but hearing his real name being used it fizzled away just a little, "Fuck you, you're a prick."

///---\\\\\

Dinner was worth the work, it was delicious and Trevor ate two helpings as the Tepes family ate calmly, feeding his stomach even let the injured boy forget he was int he presence of the great Dracula for the time being. That and listening to the family was absolutely mundane, it reminded him of sitting down and eating with his own.

"How was your day dear?" Lisa asked and they talked gently and lovingly together, then proceeded to ask Adrian what he'd been up and discussed The Odyssey since he'd finished it earlier.

As he listened Trevor hadn't realized that at some point he had completely stopped stuffing his face and was staring down at his plate listening to them all talk and gently laugh together.

_His sisters giggled together at the other side of the table as Trevor pouted and pushed his dinner plate away from him. "Mama please, I really hate broccoli."_

_"Your sisters had to eat their carrots and your_ father _has to eat his liver, right dear?" his mother said sternly with love on her face._

_Nodding his father gulped, "I'll make you a deal Trev, we'll eat them at the same time and then all five of us can have dessert. Sound good?" All three of the kids perked up and soon Trevor had his broccoli scooped onto a fork, his father the same with his liver and they were holding their food to their mouths as the two young girls counted down._

_"Five!" "Four!" "Three!" "Two!" "One!" "Eat!"_

A real voice pulled Trevor from his memories and he looked up over at Lisa, "Trevor honey, are you okay?"

Tears were bubbled in his eyes clouding his vision and ready to spill over, three pairs of eyes stared intently at him like he was about to break into a million pieces. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trevor bonds with the Tepes family, he and Adrian start to become friends and try to just be kids. Too bad life seems intent on throwing shit in Trevor's face.

Everything hurt. Over the least two weeks Trevor had grown accustomed to his physical pain but this was on a whole different level, his heart hurt and ached more than it ever had. After his home and family were burnt to the ground he had grieved but had also gone straight into survival mode, blocking out every other emotion and need other than find food and a warm place to sleep.

It was the first time he'd really thought about his family since it had all happened and it was hitting the young boy hard, he tried to fight then and sniffle to distract himself but the tears began to drip from his eyes even when he squeezed them shut tightly.

When Trevor had told Lisa he didn't have a home to return to she had just assumed he was a street kid, she had no idea what this child had been through and so recently too. The tears were a shock to the whole Tepes family, they were powerful enough that even Lord Dracula had stopped eating his dinner to give a pitiful look to a crying child.

Adrian looked to each of his parents unsure what to do, sure he didn't get along with Trevor that great as of yet but that didn't mean he wasn't concerned about the slow sobbing slowly filling the room. His mother was the first to move and kneel by Trevor's chair, a hand touching one knee and lifting a cloth to start dabbing at the brunette's leaking eyes.

"Are your wounds causing you a lot of pain?" she asked but Trevor shook his head, his throat felt tight and hot with quiet sobs and all he could think to do was touch lightly over his chest where his heart was. "Oh." she blinked with understanding.

A realization hit her then, "Did you lose your family...recently?" The boy tried to peel his eyes open finally and gave a tiny nod. Motherly arms scooped him from his chair and pulled Trevor into her lap where she knelt, cradling him close and stroking his back, "I'm so sorry, I should have asked before. It's going to be alright dear, I know it hurts but you aren't alone. You can stay here as long as you want or if you prefer I can take you elsewhere, but don't worry about all of that right now." Not once did she tell Trevor to stop crying, her motions encouraged him to get it all out and let his body relieve itself of so much built up grief.

When his crying finally subsided and Trevor sat back on his chair his face was flushed and eyes were red, it was hard to look any of the Tepes' in the face from embarrassment. He'd just broke down at a family dinner and been stared at, he felt like a five-year-old having a tantrum and bothering these people.

Even as the two adults slowly started to eat again their eyes would occasionally watch Trevor, eyeing him to make sure he wasn't going to break again. Adrian was the only one who refrained from doing any of that, he had his usual stern look back on his face as he stood up. "I'll show Trevor to his actual room then."

Blue eyes followed Adrian as the boy gathered both of their plates and left them in the kitchen sink, slowly Trevor budged from his chair and followed to the kitchen, then back to the dining room and out down the hallway like a duckling following in line.

As the cool air of the stone hallways settled over Trevor he could feel his body and face cooling and recede in redness from his embarrassment and crying fit, watching Adrian walk in front of him his eyes kept glancing up and then downwards to the other's feet. "You didn't have to do that."

"I did, you were far too pitiful sitting there like you were." his tone was different, the words irked Trevor at first and he almost said something back but the tone was what stopped him. It wasn't harsh, Adrian was trying to be nice but he didn't want to show it outright.

"Thanks then, I guess." He swallowed his pride for the moment and turned into the room he was led to. It looked warm with a personal fireplace lit and on the verge of dying in its crackling ashes but having left the room very comfortably warm. The room was freshly cleaned and made up, probably Lisa's doing he suspected, adorned with a bed, a bookshelf, and a shelf with some toys on it.

"All this for me?" Sure there was a huge castle of rooms to pick from but somehow Trevor hadn't expected quite all this, it was almost like he was expected to not be leaving, ever.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

Trevor still wasn't sure how long he was going to stay in the giant castle, that currently reside in the middle of a huge forest somewhere he didn't recognize. He'd learned that Dracula could move his castle at will so he'd probably placed it here after the scare of almost losing his wife to other humans, that was fine by Trevor he didn't feel like being near humans either right now.

He'd given it three months so far staying with the Tepes family and he had to admit, he liked them, he liked them a lot. Even Lord Dracula. At first the boy had taken his time to carefully avoid the powerful vampire but quickly learned that even in such a huge home it wasn't possible to keep away all of the time.

The first few encounters were awkward, Trevor hadn't mustered a single word but one day he'd just been reading in the huge library curled in a chair when for once he didn't notice the man's presence enter at all. He'd become so relaxed in the castle and around this family he hadn't noticed the huge vampire until a cold hand touched the top of his head and he was leaned over slightly, "That's quite a large book." he'd commented.

"I'm um, not very good at reading so I figure by the time I finish this I can read anything."

"Carry on then, my apologies for interrupting." the man smiled and walked over to his large shelves looking for his own particular book. Trevor glanced up, then back at his page before standing and walking over, his fingers shook and every fiber of his being told him not to do what he was about to. With two fingers he tugged the vampire's long black cloak to get his attention, piercing eyes turned to him quickly. "Yes?"

"How do you pronounce this word?"

"Rhy-thm." Dracula said slowly, with a nod Trevor retreated to his chair to continue reading.

At least a couple times a week Trevor also found himself following Lisa around like a baby chick just like he'd done to his mother, most of the time while she was doing laundry. He would carry one of her baskets for her, help her wash, dry, and then fold everything back a lot of the time without even saying much himself.

Lisa would talk to him about things, how she'd met her husband, different patients she'd helped, interesting cases she'd figured out but she never pushed him to talk about himself even though he could see her curiosity whenever she eyed him. "What sort of foods do you dislike?" she asked one evening when the clouds filled the sky outside.

"Don't you mean what kind of food I _do_ like?" slowly Trevor folded the creases from the freshly dried fabrics as they sat together.

"You've eaten extra helpings of everything I've made this far, I know you aren't a picky eater but I'd like to know if there's anything you hate. I'll try not to make that then." she smiled.

She was right, Trevor devoured every meal he'd been served and they were all delicious. Even things he'd once not liked smelled so good that he couldn't turn his nose up at them, but he thought about it determined to give Lisa at least one thing. "I'm not really fond of leeks."

"Hah a vegetable I should have guessed, Adrian isn't fond of those either."

Wrinkling his nose when the name was brought up Trevor started to fold faster like a tiny fire ignited in him suddenly. "I'd eat them if you took the trouble to make them."

"Don't be jealous dear." Lisa reached and ran her hand through Trevor's brown hair, a tiny habit both she and Lord Dracula shared. It was normally saved for Adrian but on a rare occasion he would be on the happy receiving end of the affectionate touch. "You need a haircut, remind me later when we're done with laundry."

"Yes ma'am." he answered in a light tone, Lisa snickered, "Don't call me that unless you're in trouble."

"Yes ma'am." Trevor repeated only to have a piece of his hair playfully tugged in return.

Most times during the day, or nights when his nightmares woke him harshly Trevor would explore the castle. It was beyond huge and the boy was having a good time making maps of every crevice in the small writing book that Dracula himself had encouraged him with saying it could keep Trevor busy for years.

When he craved companionship that wasn't either of the two adults Trevor would sneak and find Adrian. The half vampire would often be reading or finding something interesting to get into, a lot of the time he would also be in the training hall practicing his swordsmanship and weaponry. Trevor had yet to join him but sometimes would sit and watch and nitpick his form.

That's where he was the day before the castle was to move, Lisa and Lord Dracula had told the boys that after three months of living in nowhere that Wallachia had calmed from the attempted witch burnings. They would be moving across the country tomorrow to try and set up a new doctor clinic for Lisa to help people in a new village where hopefully no one would recognize her.

So for the day Trevor had been trying to read while Adrian worked on his battle footing, he was getting mildly good at commanding his special sword to fly through the air with his vampiric powers but he was young and needed a lot of tuning. He kept slipping and fumbling today more than usual.

Trevor couldn't help but snort every few minutes when it happened, a louder laugh when the blond boy flipped once and fell on his ass. "You try focusing on your feet, your muscles, grip, and everything while you're supposed to be fighting!" the older boy said angrily with frustration. "It's not as easy as people make it look!"

Closing his book the brunette set it aside and stood then stretched from side to side, getting all of his muscles warmed up. "I'll show you how easy it is." He'd been putting off practice due to his injuries but maybe it was about time to resume them and show Adrian up at the same time.

"You know how to fight? Sorry Trevor I don't think your street fighting is going to match up against what my father has been teaching me."

"Then you shouldn't be worried." Trevor took up a practice sword from the wrack and walked out to meet Adrian like he was walking on clouds and had not a single care in the world. The opposite of how Adrian was stiff and prevalently angry as he picked up his own sword, "I won't use my powers then or this will be over way too fast."

Twirling the play sword in one hand the brunette took a step back and nodded, "I'm ready whenever you are." He was charged at and he'd admit that Adrian was fast but not nearly skilled enough, Trevor had been using a sword since he was four years old so chances were he had the advantage here.

In a single movement Trevor moved aside and stuck out his foot tripping the other boy who dropped his sword to catch himself before he landed right on his face. Turning his head to snarl at Trevor who had a shit eating grin on his face, "Cheater! Again!" he demanded and stood.

The second and third time Trevor won by skillfully working up an opening to point his sword to the vampire's throat, the fourth time he completely disarmed Adrian, and the fifth he'd gotten cocky and tripped him once again. "Just figured you needed to be knocked off your throne a little bit, thinking you're so perfect."

"I never said I was perfect."

"You didn't have to, I can hear your prestige in your voice whenever you talk to me. Just try to be humble since we found the one thing I'm better at than you." A leg knocked Trevor's feet out from under himself and he and his weapon went clattering to the floor. Adrian took a dive at him that turned into a wrestling match, there were no punches or kicks dirtily thrown in, it was just rolling around like they were a couple of pigs in a mud pile.

Adrian ended on top and successfully pinned Trevor down but was caught off guard by the sound coming from the loser's throat. He was laughing, not just a little snicker or chuckle but a real and loud laugh with a warm smile on his lips. "Okay, okay you win!" Adrian moved his hands from Trevor's wrists to the ground to free his movement but blinked, "You thought that was fun?"

"Yeah, didn't you?" it reminded him of how he'd used to play with his sisters, he'd been gentle because they were smaller but he used to let them gang up and fight with him all of the time.

They both sat up, their knees pressed together, "It was sort of fun." the vampire rubbed the back of his neck and then ran his fingers through his long hair to neaten it up from how messy it had gotten from wrestling. "You're really good at sword fighting, that was....that was really cool. You should spar with me once in a while."

"I'd like that a lot Adrian."

\\\\\///\\\\\///

It seemed they'd reached a comradery so the early evening after the castle had moved to a new forest, this time closer to a village but far enough away to stay mostly inconspicuous, the two boys took their practice swords and ran out to go explore together and spar.

Trevor was comfortable in the woods, he'd played in the ones near his home his entire life and these felt no different. He and Adrian ran, they'd fight a little and repeat until they tired and just walked beside each other. "You hear that?" the blond asked.

"No, what is it?"

"I hear running water, there must be a small river nearby."

"Thank goodness I'm so thirsty, hey speaking of rivers does running water really affect vampires?"

Adrian smiled and shook his head as he leads them over towards the stream, "No, that's a silly superstition just like that we can't see ourselves in mirrors or are susceptible to silver."

"That last one I knew, it's werewolves that are weak to silver not vampires." Trevor knelt by the water source and scooped his hands to get a drink, it was nice and clear water and very cold. "Ahh that's good! When it gets hot out we should come swim in the river, wouldn't that be fun-what?" Trevor asked when Adrian nudged him with his leg. "Stand up slowly Trevor, look over there." he said in a murmur.

Across the river stood a large wolf, no not a wolf, a fenrir. It was a wolf but a much larger than average one and pure black with red eyes, they were known to be vicious beasts with a thirst for blood. Unlike wolves they didn't just kill to eat but also for sport and they especially hated humans.

"You should go back to the castle, I'll meet you there." the older boy said, hand slowly moving to the sword at his hip. Fear laced through Trevor's veins, Adrian was trying to protect him and put himself into harm's way. "Wait don't-! Adrian!" he called as the half-vampire rushed forward to block the fenrir from its snarling attack, huge teeth biting and breaking the practice sword into pieces with one bite. Adrian stumbled back from the impact and fell into the shallow stream with a grunt, eyes wide staring at the wolf.

"There it is, there's the beast!" an older voice became louder and shuffled through the bushes showing it to be not one but three men carrying farm tools, one had a crossbow. Outnumbered the fenrir wasn't sure who to go for first, they weren't particularly bright creatures but put up a heavy fight for people who knew nothing about them. It turned to it's larger targets still baring its teeth and lunged for one, biting straight through his throat and shaking its head side to side splattering blood on the other two men and the nearby trees.

"Adrian!" Trevor cried out and rushed into the stream to help pull his companion to his feet and back into the dry land, screams filled his ears but not from anyone in front of him. Ghost screams that he heard every night, the voice of his parents telling him once again that he and his sisters were born to fight monsters.

Though his heartfelt shaky Trevor's hands were steady as he ripped the cufflink off one sleeve of Adrian's shirt, "These are silver aren't they?" A fenrir may not be a werewolf but they were in a similar family of magic and beast combined, sort of like the werewolves weaker brethren.

"Yes but what do you think you're going to do?"

"Finish this." he answered and drew his sword, stepped forward, and whistled loudly. "Dog breath, over here!" Now with a man's blood coating it's mouth and fur Trevor should be shaking in his boots but he felt calmer than he had in a long time, maybe his parents weren't full of shit and this really was in his blood.

It lunged and the boy sidestepped it just barely in time to avoid the claws and turned on his heel to slam his sword through the beasts foot making it cry out with a howl of pain. Trevor would like to think it was skill but he knew it was his lucky streak that he was able to throw the small cufflink straight down the wolves throat while it was open.

The fenrir swallowed, barely even noticing the piece of silver in its huge throat that already tasted metallic with blood, that is until its insides started to sizzle and burn from the inside out. It cried and howled, screamed in agony and tried to swallow water and gag to relieve itself. "That's why you don't mess with Belmont's!" the young hunter cried.

"Trevor, get away from it!" Adrian called, grabbing the other boy around the waist and yanking him back as the fenrir started to steam like a piece of raw meat over a fire and then bursting into full flame and then dispursing into a pile of ash to be washed down stream. "Trevor that was foolish!" the young vampire grabbed the brunette's shirt with a single hand, "You could have been killed!"

"Oh just like _you_ could have been killed when you told me to go back to the castle!?" he argued back. "You're welcome by the way since I just saved us with my quick thinking!"

"Quick thinking? Ha!" Adrian loudly chided, "More like pure luck! It seriously almost killed you!"

With a shake of his head Trevor grabbed Adrian's arm from his shirt and yanked it away, "Yeah it did but I'm okay! Are you okay!?"

"I'm fine!" the other yelled back.

A voice interrupted them from the other side of the stream, "Did you...say your last name was Belmont?" With wide eyes Trevor looked over at the two villagers who had yet to lower their weapons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: A disclaimer, none of the facts about a fenrir I've written are based on fact.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrian's point of view on Trevor. The world seems like it's all turning against Trevor and it's up to Adrian to decide to follow this feeling in his chest or throw Trevor to the wolves.

The moment he'd seen his mother and father carrying a half burnt to a crisp boy to his mother's mixing room Adrian hated him. An anger started in his chest ignited from jealousy and a little fear.

While his father had been far away and still returning from a long journey when his mother was in trouble, Adrian had only been ten minutes away at the local evening market unaware of what had happened until she came rushing along and dragged him home in a hurry with a half explanation.

What if the other boy hadn't intervened? Adrian was so close and he would have never known what was happening until it was likely too late and the woman was burned to death.

As Trevor cried out in his sleep the first few days unconsciously for his mother and father Adrian held onto his bitterness so hard that he didn't feel anything about the crying whimpers, pathetic.

He'd never had a friend before, most of Adrian's time was spent in his families castle or his mother's doctor office with very little time out in Lupu village to explore the market or the small bookshop. Sure he'd seen kids playing around with primitive toys and in the dirt playing games, it looked fun but he just didn't feel part of that world.

They would never understand or accept him so why build himself up for heartbreak later when his could-be friends would find out what he was and try to stab him in the heart? It didn't surprise him when Trevor first tried to threaten him with a dining utensil after realizing he was part vampire.

Other than the first day being with Trevor was different, sure the brunette was still on edge around him and his father but after a week it had sunk into his thick skull that if the vampires wanted to eat him they would have done so already and he finally started to visibly relax around them.

Adrian didn't like sharing attention from his parents, he downright hated it and had to physically bite his lip or clench his fists whenever he noticed it happening between Trevor and his parents to stop himself from acting out like a five-year-old. Logically he knew that their split attention didn't mean they loved him any less but that didn't make it grate any less on his mind.

That feeling never left even as he found himself enjoying Trevor's company as time passed along. Conversations that started out with nothing kind to them at least grew some substance as they talked about books and monsters, Trevor had a good knowledge of night beasts funny enough. By the time Trevor could walk around Adrian noticed the sound of hobbling footsteps following him around the castle at least once a day, most of the time they sat in silence in the same room doing separate things but sometimes he'd pity the human and show him how to play some of his board games.

It pissed him off something awful when Trevor beat him at sword fighting, Adrian wanted to chalk it up to letting his anger get the best of him and that gave Trevor the advantage of being calm and collected. But he knew that he'd been neglecting his training, his parents never pushed for or against him learning to fight and left it entirely up to his wants. Usually he trained for a few hours once a week but obviously that wasn't enough if some brat a year younger than him could beat him so easily!

The early evening after the castle moved the two of them had sat on a balcony sharing a nice healthy lunch his mother made them, it was during that time when Adrian found himself smiling for no other reason than he didn't feel lonely he decided Trevor got the honorary title of his first friend. Not long after that they went out to play in the forest together.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

"Did you...say your last name was Belmont?"

Belmont's, his father taught Adrian all about the famous family of monster hunters. They were originally from somewhere in France before they moved out to Romania and more specifically the Wallachian area where vampires and other monsters were rampant.

They were not to be underestimated or taken lightly and to be avoided at all costs in Adrian's case, he'd been told they wouldn't discriminate between him being half vampire and half human. If he had a small amount of vampiric blood in him then he was as bad as Dracula himself, they would slaughter him on sight. Whereas normal children heard scary bedtime stories about werewolves and vampires, Adrian heard scary stories about the Belmont's.

His first friend, the one Adrian had chosen to begin to trust and care about from this morning onwards...was his mortal enemy. Trevor had essentially lied to him, there was no way the young human didn't know what his family was to Adrian's.

They stood close after he had just pulled Trevor away from the burning ash corpse of the dead fenrir and Adrian stood there shocked and taking in all that the Belmont name meant to him and trying to mix it with what he knew about Trevor. "No, you must've misheard." the brunette lied when he found his voice.

"Don't lie you brat, I heard you loud and clear, and the way you killed that beast is proof enough for me." The taller farmer with dark and short hair took two large steps towards them. Trevor grabbed Adrian's arms and urged him, "Let's go back to the castle." in a hushed tone.

"No. You said your last name was Belmont." Adrian said in a resigned tone. "If that's true then I shouldn't let you return with me."

Neither of the farmhands were smiling but the dark haired one moved forward again and gruffly grabbed Trevor by the shoulder, "That's right, you're better off coming with us than bother this young man and his family. It's best you rejoin your family."

"Don't touch me pig fucker!" he spewed out the insult with venom and tried to shake the hand off but was grabbed with two harsh hands and began to be dragged away even with his kicking and thrashing. The second man who was much slighter and bald relieved him of his play sword. "Let go you bastards! Adrian, wait you don't understand! Adrian!"

"Shut your mouth brat it's all going to be fine soon."

Adrian was torn, Trevor had hidden a very important truth from him and his whole family after they were so kind to him and trusted the boy. Had he understood that right, those men were going to take Trevor back to whatever family he had left? But then he thought hard, those tears and nightmares the brunette had all of the time were hard to fake and they just seemed so genuine.

There could be something he was missing or not putting together that he'd have to ask Trevor to clarify, it was just a matter of if he trusted Trevor enough to go after him or cut his losses now and headed home never to think of the other again.

"Adrian!" a frightened scream echoed against the trees and finally the blond snapped to attention, his eyes becoming clear and determined. It might be the biggest mistake of his life but he was going to put his faith into the other and not look back.

It took Adrian a little while to catch up and find the trail those farmers had used but followed them all the way to their village not too far away. It was small, smaller than Lupu and twice as run down, he followed the men to their farm staying hidden in the bushes and silent on his feet just as his father had taught him.

They threw Trevor to the ground, the dark-haired man stepping on his back to keep him from getting up. "I thought they killed all of you Belmont's after you were excommunicated from the church. Must've missed you since you're so small."

"He didn't get far in all this time, the old Belmont estate is what, a few days north of here at the other end of the forest?" the slight man asked as he rummaged through a wooden trunk to grab something metal and then started a fire in a small pit.

"Let me go assholes, I haven't done anything to you! I just want to go home!" the boy cried out still not giving up his every attempt to fight and get free. The slight man smirked, "He's got a lot of spirit I'll give him that, but hey if we let you go now we'd be damned to hell forever according to the church."

"Yeaaah, just not an option. We'll try to make it quick kid." the hefty one said as if they were being merciful. "Not like you have a home to go back to now anyway."

A look came over Trevor's face as he realized that, he didn't have a home. The Belmont estate burned down, Adrian basically banishing him from the Dracula castle, where would he go even if he got free? It would be like before living like an animal in the wilderness. "Fuck the church." Trevor said and swallowed hard, gripping his hands into the dry dirt.

He was wrong, god he was so wrong and he should have never let the men even touch Trevor let alone take him away from the woods. There were still mixed feelings raging in the half-vampires mind but at the moment he knew Trevor needed saving and they could hash all of this out later in the safety of the castle. It was just a matter of waiting for an opening, these men were three times their size and without a proper handle on his powers and just a play sword at his side Adrian didn't want to make this situation worse.

"What is that?" Trevor's blue eyes went wide. "You don't recognize it? This is your family crest isn't it?" the bald man asked and lifted the metal piece to place it in the hot fire, it was a brand. A fucking brand.

"By church decree Belmont's are to be branded for identification and then delivered to Targoviste to be burned at the stake." the other farmer announced out loud. "We'll try to make it quick." he promised again.

When the bald one lifted the brand from the fire and slowly moved it towards Trevor's shoulder Adrian knew he couldn't wait for an opening any longer. His feet moved on their own faster than he'd ever been able to run before and just as the brand pressed against skin the young vampire rammed himself into the man holding it shoving him to the ground. "What the fuck!?"

Adrian picked up the brand and swung it hard, cracking it against the other man's face and knocking him out cold on the ground with a likely broken nose and maybe cracked skull then dropped the brand. "Let's go!" his cold hand found Trevor's warm one on the ground and dragged him up to his feet and darting out into the woods that surrounded the village.

They ran without stopping all the way back to the steps of the castle before collapsing there with heavy breathes and panting. "You left me.." Trevor broke the silence moments later, "You... _left_ me.."

He wanted to apologize, to wipe away that look of betrayal on Trevor's face but at the moment it felt like his chest was clogged with a tight feeling. Why couldn't he just so those two words, why couldn't he just say he was sorry? He'd never apologized to someone before other than to his parents after he'd been a brat but he wasn't embarrassed to say he was wrong sometimes. So why was it so damn hard to say those words at the moment?

"Boys you're back early, I thought you'd be out much later!" Lisa's kind voice broke the moment as she stepped onto the front steps of the castle and stopped. Her motherly eyes took in everything in a split moment, boys out of breath, clothes were torn, dirty, each looking scared out of their wits, Trevor's sleeve ripped and a _brand_ red and stinging on his skin fresh from the press.

"What happened!?" surging forward and took them both by the shoulders to lead them inside and straight to her infirmary room. Neither boy said a word.

"Vlad, dear, I need some help please!" she said urgently looking to her husband who was stirring a pot of some herbal remedy inside of the room already. "What did the boys get into? They look a mess?"

"I'm hoping they'll tell us that but first, Trevor is hurt. Can you assess the wound while I make something up for it? Adrian, sweetie, please take a seat and calm down I'll be right over here if you need me."

There was no point in trying to hide such a mark from the great Lord Dracula, as soon as his fingers pulled at the small arm to get a good look he knew what it meant. Dracula's eyes filled with a blood red color and the rest of his skin drained of any human warmth it once held. "A Belmont?"

Though she didn't know the crest symbol Lisa knew the name well, as Adrian had she had been told all about their history by her husband. That didn't change that in her mind Trevor was just a small boy who was in need of their emotional and physical care. "Vlad. Calm down." her voice became stern and strong, defensive in a way.

"Don't use that tone of voice with me, my love." Dracula said back in his cold voice, "We have an enemy in our home and you want me to remain calm? We're going to lock him in a room where I know he won't mess with anything-"

"No! He's just a boy, you can't do that to him!" Loud voices argued and Adrian lost track of what was being said soon enough. He'd heard them argue and fight before just like any parents did on occasion but he hated it. Clamping his hands over his ears Adrian stayed still, he just wanted to curl up in his bed and pretend this entire day hadn't happened. He'd been feeling so happy and full earlier with his family, his friend, a new place to explore, and quickly all of that felt like it was torn away.

Trevor was locked into a bedroom, one that was empty of everything but a dusty cold bed.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

Dinner was tense, they all sat together but no one smiled or talked, the last time things had been this tense was when his mother announced she wanted to set up her first doctor's office back in Lupu. That was four years ago and his father had eventually given in and gotten over it.

Picking at his food the tension became too much by the time the food was cold. Dropping his silverware loudly onto his plate with a clatter Adrian looked up at his father across the table. "What are you going to do to Trevor?"

"I haven't decided yet son." the Lord ate his food casually like he was deciding what curtains to pick out for a new room.

"Father they burned his family and entire home, we can't just kick him out on the streets again!" Adrian voiced with passion and kindness enough to make his mother proud.

"That is not your decision Adrian, him being a Belmont changes this entire situation. They're like weeds, you let one live to see another day and they'll come back stronger and harsher eventually. You either destroy all of them, or perish to them."

"This is bullshit!" standing up the boy slammed his hands on the table, eyes seething with a childish anger that flared up quickly but began to diminish almost immediately. "Adrian!" his mother quipped in, "You will not speak to your father that way! I think you're done with dinner, go to your room and don't come out for for the night." she said as a final judgment before anything worse could be said in the dining room.

"But I-"

"No buts!" Lisa snapped and pointed to the exit, "Go now."

Adrian quickly retreated to his room and pulled his blanket all around him as he laid in bed to create a little cocoon. The entire day played through his head several times now that he had time to digest it. So much violence, so much yelling, so much gone wrong because of a dumb last name.

If Trevor stayed here his father was going to kill him despite his protests, if he just let everything settle he would probably calm down and change his mind. All they needed was time, Adrian was sure of it!

That night Adrian snuck from his room across the castle to where Trevor was being held and physically broke the lock off the door by snapping the whole knob off. Not surprising but Trevor wasn't asleep and instead was staring, glaring, at whoever was about to enter the room.

"Adrian...what are you doing here?"

"You can't stay here or my father will likely kill you." he answered and readjusted the backpack slung on his shoulders. A cloak matching the one he was wearing in his hands that he slung around Trevor's shoulders and tied in place, it was warm and comfortable.

"I already know that, but it doesn't answer my question. You're no better, you left me Adrian." the brunette reminded.

"I did..." his eyes became sad and Trevor could see that even in the low light of the room. "And I'm sorry, I should never have let this happen. That's why I'm here, to apologize and try to fix things as much as I can. This time I'm not going to leave you."

"Promise?" Trevor asked but pulled the cloak around his shoulders further. "I promise. I won't leave you Trevor." Adrian extended his hand and closed his around Trevor's warm one when they connected and started to lead him out of the castle.

"Do you actually have a plan on where we're going?"

"Um, sort of. I might need your help on that one, you've seen more of this world than I have."

"I think I have a place in mind actually." Trevor stated and squeezed his friend's hand in his own as they walked out into the dark forest with only a little direction guiding them other than their trust in each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thank you EVERYONE for all of the wonderful comments, I've read them all at least three times each. Special thanks to CasieMod for the lovely little conversations and information they offered.
> 
> Next chapter will be the start of the story being focused mainly on Adrian and Trevor's growing relationship, but don't worry Dracula and Lisa are still going to be very prevalent. Things will get better eventually.
> 
> ALSO. Sypha is definitely going to make an appearance or two in this story but how do you readers feel about a slight romantical addition? Sort of like Adrian/Trevor+a platonic soulmate Sypha?


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some bonding, some cuddles, some emotions between the boys. Trevor finally gets to go home.

They hadn't been friends long so Trevor wasn't quite sure where such a betrayed feeling had come from when Adrian let the farmers haul him off to their lands. He just kept thinking that well, hadn't he been through enough? Hadn't the universe made him suffer enough to pay for whatever sins he could have possibly made in his twelve years on this Earth?

But as Adrian held his hand the entire time in silence as they walked through the dark woods Trevor found it hard to hold onto any of the anger he'd been harboring. They were running away together, not forever likely but without a time frame in mind.

Adrenaline from running away from Lord Dracula kept Trevor warm for a while but as the night continued the chill of the air began to seep into his bones. Their lantern was beginning to dim and Trevor found it hard to see much beyond the silhouettes of trees, luckily he knew for a fact that Adrian could see much better than he could in the dark.

Blowing out a long breath Trevor watched the mist puff into the air and dissipate, his body shivered from top to bottom trying to warm itself. "Adrian I'm freezing, I think we should stop and make a fire to warm up."

"It's not that cold out, we can make it a little longer." the other boy urged wanting to put as much distance between them and the castle as they could before the sun rose and his parents found them both missing. Feeling a shiver run through Trevor and how cold the brunette's hands had become Adrian slowly stopped and turned to look at his friend. "You're really that cold? Sorry, the cold doesn't bother me as much as a normal human."

"It's fine." letting their hands fall apart Trevor blew hot breath between his and then pulled his cloak tighter around him trying to heat himself up even just a little. "I want to keep going but I think I'm at my limit right now. You'll end up dragging me along if we keep going much longer." He felt absolutely exhausted and no wonder. They'd spent the day running and playing and then Trevor had been scared shitless being _branded_ before having to face Dracula's anger. Not to mention he was running on no dinner or sleep and the stupid damn _brand_ stung like hell.

He just couldn't believe there was a permanent mark on his skin now, for now Trevor just tried to put it out of his mind.

They made a small camp together and slept near a fire for a few hours, the sun was beginning to brighten the forest when Adrian woke up. Sitting up he ran a hand through his messy hair, he missed his pillow and had a slight headache from sleeping on the ground. Rubbing his eyes he kicked some dirt onto where the fire had been and stopped mid-motion, "Trevor?" he called seeing his friends spot across the fire was empty.

"I'm right here."

Adrian turned his head quickly, Trevor was walking back to their camp and sunk to sit cross-legged in front of the vampire. "I found these raspberries, they're out of season but they should be fine to eat. Also, I snagged this little guy." the boy grinned and held up a recently killed squirrel and dropped it into Adrian's lap. "Wasn't sure when the last time you had any blood to drink."

The squirrel felt like a final peace offering, this was Trevor accepting both parts of Adrian. Not just the human part but the vampire as well. "Oh." Adrian looked unimpressed, "You slaughtered a small woodland creatures for me, how heroic."

Gritting his teeth in an irritated smile Trevor sarcastically spat back, "You're _so_ welcome, someone has to take care of you in this big scary forest. If you don't want the squirrel I'll cook it for lunch."

"I'll drink what I can and then we'll eat it for lunch. You might not want to watch, might be messy." It wasn't the blond's first time drinking from a little animal but he wasn't particularly fond of it. Trevor started to snack on the berries but looked relaxed and didn't turn his eyes away from Adrian as the half-vamp sunk his fangs into the squirrel to drink what he could. The mini-hunter didn't bat an eye at the scene.

Blood was actually the one thing Adrian hadn't packed in his bag before running off. He had a few canteens of water, flint for fires, two knives, a salve for Trevor's brand, and some dried jerky to reserve as best possible. Lucky for them it looked like Trevor felt right at home within all of the trees looking quite rested from sleeping on the ground and have woken up early to scavenge and hunt.

They had a long day of walking to get to where they were headed to the day was peppered with little conversations and sometimes little playful fights. A little after lunchtime when the sun was just starting to go down towards the horizon Trevor had an inkling in his mind, something he just really wanted to ask. "Not that I'm complaining, hah...but, why did you change your mind about me?"

Right, guess this conversation was bound to come up eventually, Adrian had practiced it in his head several times. "I was angry at first because I felt like you'd lied to my family out of malice, but you didn't. You were worried that something like this would happen and that you'd either have to run away or be killed, right?"

"Right." Trevor muttered with a slight nod, "You're family is weird, it's against everything my family taught me vampires were supposed to be and I can practically hear my ancestors shouting at me to kill you guys sometimes. I don't want to though, your family is kind and warm and they aren't hurting anyone."

"So we agree to let bygones be bygones?"

"Hah, I thought that went without saying when I let you kidnap me from your own castle." the brunette felt a smirk tug at his lips.

"Kidnap you? What, are you a damsel in a storybook now Trevor?" the other clicked his tongue with a heavy 'tch'.

With a heavy thud Trevor let his body fall to the ground dramatically sprawled out, one arm over his head, Adrian turned on his heel and glared, "What the hell are you doing?"

"Oh _please_ great Alucard, I'm in need of rescue! I cannot go on any longer like this!" Trevor feigned a fragile princess voice. The blond boy nudged Trevor's side with his foot, "Get up, idiot."

"I would but somehow I find my legs no longer have the strength to carry me, woh is me!"

"Trevor, I swear if you don't get up I will _carry_ you like a princess!" Adrian threatened. When he was ignored and just laughed at he made good on his word, kneeling down and hauling Trevor up into his arms complete princess style, "You asked for it!"

The humor depleted from Trevor's voice and he started to whine, "Okay put me down, I'm done! Come on I'm not a girl put me down!" Even with always having that inkling in the back of his mind telling him that Adrian was part vampire Trevor found himself forgetting it all too often in moments before these where the other would show off his speed or strength or fangs.

Adrian was strong but that didn't make it any easier to carry a squirming princess as much as he attempted to just to embarrass his friend. Trevor had other ideas and didn't stop his movements until it sent Adrian falling to his ass, Trevor sitting properly in his lap with arms still wound around him as if to protect him from the fall. After a grunt from falling gold eyes stared into Trevor's blue ones, "Are you going to walk now?"

"....Yes sire." Trevor gave one last tease before they continued on, his face flushed a little red and a feeling squeezing in his stomach that he wouldn't be able to name for another few years.

When evening fell again they ate what they could find and soon after as it started to become quite dark the chill settled in, much colder than the previous evening. It was enough that even Adrian was starting to feel cold and he found his eyes looking over to his friend every few minutes, watching him shiver and huddle in his cloak rubbing his arms. "We need to find somewhere to hide from this wind or you're going to freeze to death."

With chattering teeth Trevor nodded, "Yo-You may not feel it a-as much but it can't be go-good for you either." It wasn't but Adrian wasn't going to complain about his own being.

"W-Wait, over there." the brunette grabbed Adrian's arm and looked to the side, "I think that's m-my tree." Which meant they were getting close to their destination but it was best to stop where they could.

Sure enough there was a huge and fat tree that had a hollowed point inside at the base. The opening was just big enough that they both squeezed inside, and the hollowed area was just big enough that they could fit by sitting pressed next to each other with their knees comfortably to their chests. Rubbing his hands together and blowing into them Trevor said, "We're cl-close, this used to be my for-fort."

Their lantern lit up the small space and helped warm it a tad, "It's good enough to sleep in." Adrian said seriously, "Tomorrow hopefully we can find something better."

Even with the lantern combined with their small space Trevor kept shivering beyond his control, he could handle a little cold but Adrian just kept looking at him like he was going to break. "I'm fine-"

"I know." the blond cut off. He felt a little guilty, he was the one to drag Trevor from the castle into these conditions and now Trevor was the one cold, not him. Loosening the ties of his cloak Adrian lifted one end, "Here, let's share." Scooching as close as he could, and they'd already been pressed close, Adrian lifted the side of his cloak over Trevor and closed it tightly so that they were sharing. It forced them to be pulled against each other with little wriggle room but it was warmer and if he hated it the brunette didn't make it known.

Within the hour Trevor had fallen asleep using Adrian's shoulder as his pillow, his hair sometimes tickling the vampires chin and making his nose wrinkle."Huh." he muttered looking up to the ceiling and making out the name _Trevor_ carved into the wood there. A small smile lifted on his face and he traced the letters with his thumb, after the slight movement Trevor shifted and made a soft noise before settling again.

"Sorry." Adrian whispered, leaned his cheek into Trevor's hair and closed his eyes.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

A little before midday that next day they made it to their destination, Adrian saw it coming himself because of all the ash that still dusted the ground into a mixture of browns and grays. There it stood, the once beautiful Belmont estate now with very little standing to its name.

"Well uh, this was my home!" Trevor gestured openly with his arms and a grin on his face like he was showing a new friend around his house and like there wasn't anything abnormal about this situation.

"It looks very...." Adrian wanted to compliment it but staring it down was like looking into what his own life could have been if his mother had died not long ago. How and why was Trevor holding himself together like he was, just grinning like an idiot and walking around the ruins.

"Let's see, this was the living room oh! And this was the dining room, we had a huge table for holidays and the entire estate would sit down together along with long-distance friends!" Adrian was shown the whole house, or described what it used to look like at least.

"What's this over here?" Adrian called and nudged his foot against a large gold-colored plaque on the ground with the Belmont insignia in the middle and other languages he didn't recognize written around it. "Looks special."

Trevor stepped over and knelt, blowing some dust and ash off of it to see the shine underneath. "This is the door to the Belmont Reserve, down there is an assortment of great weapons, a library, and probably more. I've been down there only twice." he reminisced. "I'd love to be able to show it to you, but I don't remember how to open it."

"Must be a magic spell in whatever language this is." the vampire said back. The faint sound of light footsteps sent panic through Adrian, he grabbed one of his hunting knives and stood around holding it up. "Stop where you are!" It wasn't who he'd ever expected, he'd almost been positive it would be someone from the village down South but no it was far from that.

Hiding around the corner of one of the remaining walls stood a girl around their age wearing blue robes and orange-red hair poking out from under the hood. "Sorry." she spoke up and stepped over, "I didn't mean to sneak up on you guys, my family is camped nearby and I heard voices." Her eyes were still taking in the ruins herself, she hadn't known any of this was here when her family had picked their rest spot for lunch.

Adrian lowered his knife to his side, still wary, but Trevor stood and stepped forward. "Woh are those Speaker Robes?"

The girl lit up, "They are, I'm surprised you recognized them! Not a lot in these parts do anymore."

"Speakers, those are the people that record stories with their memories and show aid to those in need, right?" Adrian asked. Trevor nodded back, "My family has a big history with Speakers so I've seen my fair share."

Lowering her hood the girl with the orangey hair shook her head a bit to settle her hair more comfortably and then extended her hand, "I'm Sypha, nice to meet you both!"

It was the brunette who shook her hand with a slight vigor, "I'm Trevor." Leaving his last name forgotten for the time, "And this is stone-cold guy is Adrian."

"Pleasure to meet you." he said politely.

"Did I hear you guys right? I heard something about a magic spell in a different language." Sypha was shown the plaque and touched her fingers over the symbols, "Hm, definitely a magic spell from what I can read. If you want in I could try to open it for you."

"Please." the boys said in unison.

"Okay but stand back, I'm still getting the hang of this." Putting her hands together Sypha muttered something, her hands began to glow and so did the golden slab before it started to rumble and faded into thin air. Scrunching her eyes in concentration the light in her hands flung and crashed into the wall she'd been hiding behind before, crumbling it down. "Uh...oops. Why do I keep doing that?"

"Sypha, that was amazing." the brunette smiled and looked down into the dark corridor, "And thanks."

"Oh please!" she waved off the compliment but was obviously touched, "It was nothing."

"Sypha!" an older voice called from far away making the girl jump and cringe, "Oh no, that'd be my grandpa looking for me. I shouldn't have just wandered off..."

Adrian touched Trevor's elbow and whispered, "We should go, we don't need anyone to see us."

"Relax Adrian, Speakers aren't violent people." he said back but his arm was tugged harder so Trevor sighed, "Fine. Sypha, nice to meet you and thanks again!" Adrian practically dragged him down the steps and they heard a quick, "Bye, hope to see you again!" before the door reappeared and closed the two boys underground.

"Are we going to be able to get out again?"

Trevor shrugged and rolled his eyes, "Maybe if you hadn't been in a rush we could have asked Sypha had to reopen it."

Adrian couldn't help it, Sypha had done nothing but be kind to them but that didn't stop the jealous pit swirling in his stomach. He'd felt it towards Trevor when he first arrived in the castle and now that the mini-hunter was his friend Adrian felt jealousy towards Trevor's natural and immediate liking of Sypha. "I'm serious Trevor."

"Okay fine, I do remember that to open it from this side you just need to touch the underside and it'll open. Easy peasy." Trevor wasn't worried, Adrian was in a sour mood suddenly but once he saw what was below he would brighten up.

The Belmont Reserve was humongous, it could give Dracula's castle a run for its money with all of the winding steps and corridors but ultimately had a very different feel. Whereas the castle was made of almost purely stone the Belmont basement was the opposite and almost completely wooden, but fine wood with intricate carvings and stained to keep it from molding.

They walked down to the bottom floor and started to light the lanterns to see the place properly, there were rows and rows of books everywhere and cabinets with artifacts, skulls, and weapons on display just like Trevor had mentioned. "Are these...vampire skulls?" Adrian asked not sure how to feel about that.

"Yeah." Trevor rubbed the back of his neck, "Sorry I forgot about those." He'd seen them just twice but never had he noticed how small and young a few of the skulls were. So small that they could have only belonged to a child. From the skulls he looked to Adrian, "If you want we can bury them." It was all he could think to offer to make any semblance of an apology for what his family had done.

"No it's fine, they've been here a long while I don't see the point in moving them. They're already dead."

"Lighten up Adrian, you love books and look how many there are here."

They got comfortable, finding a stash of blankets and making a little nesting area in the library with them. Adrian made himself a pile of books he was interested in looking through and Trevor was picking through the weapon horde looking for something, his eyes sparkling something special when he picked up the whip.

Two days flew by, the boys rarely left each other's sides other than to use the toiletries or wander about. They burned through all of the dried jerky Adrian had brought and most of the water but neither of them particularly wanted to leave. It was so peaceful and quite staying together like they were and just enjoying each others company.

Okay a few times Trevor had pissed Adrian off by climbing onto the bookshelves or somewhere high and dive bombing him and turning a once quiet hour into a wrestling match. One time Adrian had spotted a shelf jiggle just in time and shoved it over, it went crashing to the ground along with Trevor who groaned. "Fuck..." he said dazed.

"That's what happens when you don't change up your tactics."

On the third night as it grew late, they both sat with grumbling stomachs and no food to fill up with. Adrian was stubborn, they both knew how this was going to end but he refused to be the one to say it. When Trevor opened his mouth the half-vampire cut off whatever he was going to say with, "Don't. I don't want to hear it."

"Hey! You don't even know what I was going to say."

"Yes I do. You want to discuss leaving and I refuse." he said with finality to his voice.

"It's not that I want to but I think we have to, we can't live down here forever." Trevor was trying to be realistic, he was trying to be the level-headed one which wasn't usually his forte. He liked being the snarky idiot and letting Adrian deal with that in his own way.

"Why not?" Adrian said back like a small child, "We have enough to keep us busy, we could go out once in a while to get food and water then come back. You seem happy here surrounded with so many memories, and here you're _alive_ and not dead at my father's hand."

Slowly Trevor blinked, "You're scared." More so, Adrian was scared for him. The blond felt his face grow hot but not from a blush, his throat squeezed and his eyes felt like they were burning. He refused to cry. "I'm not scared, I'm mad."

For once Trevor felt like the older and more mature one, he felt like he was with his little sisters again like when they'd both been terrified of a huge thunderstorm that boomed outside. What would he have done for them in this situation to comfort them? "Adrian?"

"Yeah-oh." Slinging his arms around Adrian's neck the Belmont scooted himself close and hugged his friend tight, he muttered into the vampire's shoulder, "You're a good friend." Then he pulled back to look Adrian in the face, "These last few days have made me feel so happy I can't even explain it."

Trevor tried to swallow down his own feelings trying to bubble up in his throat, "I haven't felt this happy since before I watched my family die. Most nights when I dream I see their faces melting off, I hear them screaming for me to run or for help..." Lifting a sleeve Trevor rubbed away a few tears that snuck to bubble in the corners of his eyes and sniffled, "I haven't had those dreams the last two days and it's been a relief."

A small sob choked from his throat, "Dammit, you're crying made me start crying."

"You started crying first!" the other boy sniffled and started rubbing his own wet eyes. "We're pathetic aren't we?"

Smiling through the tears Trevor nodded, "Yeah, we're kind of pathetic....but you were pathetic first."

"Shut it!" the blond boy giggled and shoved his friend in the shoulder.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

When Trevor woke up he felt like his front was pressed against something warm and comfortable so he nuzzled it without thinking and kept his eyes shut, muttering, "Adrian..." thinking they might have drifted close to each other in the night. It wouldn't be the first time.

But as his brain started to wake up it put two and two together, he was being carried against someone's shoulder, carefully he peeked an eye open and his heart dropped into his stomach. "Good morning little one." Lord Dracula smiled at him calmly. "Don't be alarmed, we have a lot to talk about once we reach the castle."

Somehow in what had taken Adrian and him a few days to get out to his estate the great vampire had plucked them up and almost made it back to his castle before the sun was directly above them. The tall and dark man had two armfuls, one carrying Trevor and the other held Adrian close as he still snoozed away.

"You're not mad?"

"I'm far from happy, but my wife was right mostly. You weren't in my castle to cause harm, and you weren't the one to kidnap Adrian." Quite the opposite and Dracula knew that for a fact when he'd happened upon the boys curled up in a pile of blankets snoring away comfortably not two feet apart.

"Go back to sleep if you can, we'll be home soon."

Home. He'd just left what he'd always considered home. Eyeing the ball of blond hair on the opposite shoulder Trevor curled back in himself and closed his eyes.

Lisa greeted them each with a hug, first Trevor and then Adrian but she held on tight. "I'm so happy you're both okay!" Though he was happy to see his parents the half-vampire had a worried look in his golden eyes, his father was not one to be trifled with when he was angry.

Dracula's fingernails were extra sharp, one of the signs that he was not in a great mood the same as when his eyes would go bloodshot red. Pulling away from his mother Adrian purposefully stood in front of Trevor to create a barrier, "Father...I'm the one who suggested running off."

"I figured as much son, step aside I'm not going to hurt him." When given the clear path Lord Dracula stepped forward towering over the Belmont boy and fingered the bandage under his short sleeve, their cloaks had been lost somewhere between falling asleep and waking up being carried.

A sharp talon sliced up in a swift motion, Trevor wasn't ashamed to say that he'd winced, but was pleasantly surprised to find no wound and just the bandage falling off. His brand mark matched the rest of his already healed burns and would forever tell anyone who saw it what he was.

"Vlad please..." Lisa said softly but didn't interfere.

"Trevor Belmont, do you swear that as long as you stay under this roof you mean my family no harm?"

Standing up straighter Trevor nodded quickly, "I swear sir."

"Then as of today you're an honorary part of this family, don't take my kindness lightly. My love, I'm sure you can handle these two from here?" Dracula turned to his wife to lock eyes and then retreated into the castle.

Lisa had a smile plastered all over her face like she hadn't known her husband was just about to do and say all of that but was ecstatic. "Welcome home Trevor. Now." she paused and put her hands onto her hips and didn't stop smiling. "You're both grounded!"

"What?" "Huh?" the boys asked with dropped jaws.

"You two ran away from home for days and left us worried to death, so for the next two weeks you two will have strict bedtimes and daily schedules with some chores and school routine." she explained, "Now come inside and I'll make you both something to eat, you must be starving." she touched a hand through both of the boy's hair and headed inside towards the kitchen.

Both of their shoulders sagged and a loud sigh escaped Trevor's throat, "That went way better than I ever could have imagined. I was sure your father was going to cut me down right then and there."

"You'll almost wish he had, my mother's grounding sounds light but trust me it won't be. When she means to make something a punishment she'll make sure it is." Adrian said before his stomach growled. "Hm, maybe we should take a bath before getting food I'm sure we smell awful."

"Speak for yourself." he pouted and rolled his blue eyes then crossed his arms over his chest and gazed up at the castle.

"Oh and Trevor?" Adrian called to get the other's attention. "Welcome home."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Ahhhh Sypha makes her first cameo and is already showing up the boys with her brilliance. Also sorry if this chapter is a little fast paced or just paced weird in general, I've had some really long last few days I'm getting ready to move so I apologize and will come back to edit this more later. Hopefully it doesn't take away from the read too much.
> 
> With this chapter comes the close of the Kid Arc, starting next chapter there will be a noted time skip to start the Teen Arc. More drama, domesticity, and *drum roll* romance finally now that the boys will be a proper age for that.


	6. Part II: Teen Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trevor's an emotional mess, as usual, but this time it's Adrian's fault.

Around three years had passed since Trevor first came to the castle and started living there, it was the beginning of spring and Trevor was due to turn sixteen in several months, the same age Adrian would be until his birthday came around at the end of the year.

Now that the boys were older and could take care of themselves better, but no less rambunctious, Lisa was spending a little more time at her clinic they'd set up in a faraway village in northern Wallachia, close to the Transylvania boarder.

At first the villagers had been very wary of the giant castle looming in the distance, until they realized that their new favorite doctor was always seen coming and going from there. There would always be whispers about it and her but for the time there was peace, and whispers were better than violence.

The boys always suspected the calm also came from a lack of huge church figures in the area.

Lord Dracula was always mysterious, when he wasn't with his wife or the boys he just seemed to disappear somewhere deep into the castle. The castle which Trevor now knew like the back of his hand, he'd tried to sneak and figure out just what the vampire went off to do but never could. Out of pure curiosity of course, never out of fear, he'd grown accustomed to the Tepes families charm of being caring yet scary at times.

After being grounded when they were young Adrian had also shown a fire in his eyes of wanting to learn to fight better and his father had taken him fully under his wing, they trained hard several times a week together and once in a while Trevor would watch. Lately he hadn't been, not since a flying sword had gone wrong and almost decapitated him.

On the other hand, Dracula also taught Trevor but found it a little more difficult to teach the boy when their fighting styles were completely different. Dracula, and Adrian, fought in proper stances with swords and powers whereas Trevor had an odd style. A mixture of what he'd been raised on, a little of what the Tepes' had taught him, and his own self-taught style. He'd become pretty sufficient with a sword but his true passion and skill lied with the whip he'd taken from his families stronghold.

He never questioned how one day the practice room in the castle had books from his families archives, ones specifically with diagrams teaching one how to use a whip. Seeing them made Trevor smile to no end, he knew Dracula brought them here for him but he saved the man the embarrassment and never mentioned it.

Actually, he'd never asked the vampire just how he'd gotten into the archives for the books or back when they'd run away a few years ago.

Nowadays Trevor and Adrian were a much more even match in a spar, Adrian tended to win six out of ten times and every once in a while they would end in a complete draw against each other. Trevor missed the days when he could frustrate his friend into attacking and win easily but now sparring was actual practice, so it was a bit hard to complain.

The two boys had bonded over that initial time together and after returning home it didn't lessen but without the ever looming doom on their heads they were able to act like actual kids and their sensual talks didn't happen as often, and they certainly hadn't cried in front of each other since then either.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

For the last two weeks Trevor was sure something was wrong, was sure that he had done something wrong that is. Adrian was avoiding him at almost every turn which had never happened before for this amount of time. There had always been times when Trevor's rambunctious personality was too much and he'd piss off his blond friend and be avoided for a day, it had never lasted longer than two.

Only problem was this time he couldn't figure out _what_ he had done, recently Trevor hadn't done anything particularly rude or mean. So here he was sneaking around the castle like back when they were much smaller, trying to surprise a half-vampire and tackle him and force Adrian to spend time with him.

Trevor didn't like being left alone for long periods of time, he'd grown up well fed and cared for, and definitely loved by his adoptive family. But when he was left alone with his thoughts for long periods of time the mental demons would begin to seep in and leave him worse for wear.

Peeking around the doorway to the practice room he heard Adrian fighting against one of the dummies inside, he should have guessed this was where the blond would go to blow off steam, they were alike in that manner. Adrian stood there in front of a wooden dummy handling his sword physically today as he hacked away at the wood with frustration. He'd been here a while, he looked slightly out of breath and was lightly sweating and had taken his shirt off, his long blond locks were matted at the ends with grease from the workout.

Catching himself staring for a few moments longer than he should have Trevor shook his head, he could feel a hot blush on his cheeks and that same heat sinking deep into his stomach. That had been happening a lot lately and he wasn't sure what to do about it, it happened randomly and at the worst times. The feeling wasn't unpleasant but at the same time it made him feel sick to his stomach.

Putting on a mask of a casual smile Trevor stepped into the room and stood a distance away with a hand on his hip, he let a single whistle note echo through the room. "Angry today Adrian? Why didn't you say so, I'm a much better work out than that poor dummy."

Adrian stopped his hacking but didn't turn to look at the Belmont, he wiped his brow of sweat and refused to turn. "Go away." Both his instincts and time of being friends with Adrian told Trevor he should leave, against better judgment he didn't. He just couldn't stand the distance between them anymore and even if the vampire beat the shit out of him today it was better than sitting in his room letting his thoughts run rampant.

Trevor picked up his whip from the weapon rack and began to roll his sleeves up, "Hmmm, no."

"I said...leave!" Adrian yelled, a swift movement of his hand flew his trusty sword right into the wood of the weapon rack, barely half an inch from Trevor's skin. "I said no, spar with me and if you win I'll leave you alone for today."

The sword unjarred itself and retreated into its master's hand, finally Adrian turned to glare at Trevor with his bright gold eyes. "Fine. Let's make this quick." he muttered the last part softly.

Adrian was so pissed today, Trevor hadn't ever seen him like this. He came at Trevor harsh and cruel with his movements with little room for error, he had Trevor on a complete defensive stance with his whip redirecting the flying sword when it was in the air. The smile on the hunter's face was gone, he dodged a swing as Adrian held his sword just barely, the thing sword tore through the sleeve on Trevor's shirt along the arm that had the old brand wound.

"You know-" Trevor tried to talk between his defending, "If you're so pissed you can always talk to me!" Adrian's sword came flying right next to Trevor's neck, grazing him and spilling a tiny flow of blood. The motion and pain startled the brunette enough he fell back into the floor, Adrian took the opportunity to finish the fight by climbing over his friend.

HIs leg pressed down hard over Trevor's and he pinned the brunette's arms to each side of his head with more strength than he needed to, he wasn't being fought back against anymore but still he held Trevor down and pressed him into the ground.

For a long moment they stayed in that position panting and staring at each other, Adrian's long hair fell forward and tickled Trevor's cheeks. "F-Feel better?" he asked and tried to smile but cringed, "Ow, ow fuck Adrian let go. That hurts."

When their eyes met again Trevor felt scared of the other teen for the very first time, Adrian was staring into him, _through_ him, not like he was Trevor but like he was a meal. His eyes showed a hunger, a thirst, a need, and struggled to look Trevor in the face and kept looking at the leaking blood from the teen's neck.

"Adrian, let go." he said with more stern eyes and a voice, demanding to be released instead of whining about it.

"No." Adrian started to speak slowly, "This is your fault, I wanted to be left alone."

The pain stung but Trevor could handle that, the heat and closeness between them was another matter. That fiery heat in his stomach was back and with a tiny grunt he tried to shift his body to no avail so he settled for turning his head to break their eye contact. "Adrian..." he said breathily and stared at where one hand had his arm locked down to the floor.

A wet tongue was suddenly on Trevor's neck, licking right up against the cut and making Trevor cry out with the most embarrassing and squeaky noise he'd ever produced. His whole body tried to jump when the tongue licked a second time. His whole body tingled but no matter how much Trevor pulled at his body Adrian wasn't releasing him.

"You're so needy, it's suffocating." Adrian breathed into his ear and Trevor froze, his eyes staring widely to the side and suddenly all of the heat in his stomach settled. Not gone but not building as it had been.

"Get off." he said in a deeper and darker tone than before, "Adrian, get the fuck off!... _Alucard_!" he yelled.

The name and shift of air between them were like the cold slap the vampire needed, he yanked back completely and sat on the floor away from Trevor. The younger teen scrambled up and tried to collect himself but felt the need above all else to flee, "Fucking asshole." he gritted out and practically ran from the room and down the hallway to the nearest bathing room.

Locking himself inside he rushed over to turn on the hot water of the shower head, a shower was something he'd never heard of before living in the castle but Trevor loved them. It felt relaxing like letting warm rain wash all of your worries down the drain.

Still in his clothes they soon became soaked, Trevor's hands felt shaky, he shoved his pants to the ground fervently and began to touch himself. He was already half-hard and it didn't take long to get the rest of the way there, pressing his forehead to the stone of the shower room Trevor hunched over in the waters spray and moved his hand faster.

Thoughts and images ravaged his mind, the way he was pressed into the ground, Adrian so close and half-naked sweating from sparring, his tongue on Trevor's neck. As Trevor climaxed he let out a small noise, it left his entire body in shivers and completely overwhelmed. "Fu...Fuck..."

Holding onto the wall Trevor sunk down and sat on the floor of the shower room as shakes wracked his body until he was sitting back against the wall and knees loosely to his chest. His hands running through and grabbing fistfuls of wet brown hair Trevor shook his head, "What is wrong with me...what is _wrong_ with me..?"

The teen wasn't sure how long he'd spent in there but after the water began to run cold he still stayed under for a time before shutting it off. He was like a drowned rat and began slinking himself off towards his room to get into dry clothes, eyes a bit hollow, emotionally drained, and staring at the floor.

"Trevor, why are you soaking wet?" Of course Lisa would find him at a time like this. "Let me guess, you and Adrian got into some trouble?" she smiled thinking about what antics her boys could have gotten into on this lovely spring afternoon. That is until she saw the look on Trevor's face, she frowned and walked right over, "What happened?" her voice turning from the sweet and kind village doctor to a mother bear ready to tear someone's face off who'd hurt her cub.

"Nothing." he managed to say in a small voice but couldn't muster a masked smile as he had for Adrian earlier. "I'm just feeling kind of...weird."

"Honey you look sick and pale, I think you should go lay down and rest." She touched Trevor's cheeks to look him over noting his shivering from the cold, pale skin, a bit of redness to his eyes. "Are you feeling up to sitting with us for dinner?"

Her thumbs sweetly brushed along Trevor's still dripping wet face, he bit his lip for a split second and shook his head. "Okay, I'll bring you some soup in a bit. Go rest up."

"Thanks." As he started to move away from her Trevor stopped, "Um Lisa..." for a moment he sounded like a little kid again and not the lanky teenager he'd grown into, "I love you."

"I love you too honey." she said back in a light and pleasant tone.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

Dinner was served, three plates not the usual four that Adrian noticed right away. After a single bite of his vegetables he noticed his mother gathering a bowl of the soup. "Dear could you take this to Trevor's room for me? He's feeling a bit under the weather today."

"Of course my love." Dracula answered and stood, holding the bowl the vampire leaned and pressed a sweet kiss to his wife's forehead. "I will be right back."

He wracked his knuckles on Trevor's door but hearing no response the vampire let himself in, there were no lights on and the window had curtains drawn closed. Dracula remembered the first month Trevor had stayed in this room after all of those incidents when he was young he couldn't sleep in the dark, had to have a lantern going all night. But soon grew comfortable in the dark castle and that hadn't changed, now sometimes the teen even felt more comfortable in the dark than the light. It was strangely endearing.

The boy was curled up under his blankets and peeked out with messy hair, "Mn...dinner?" he asked softly.

"Yes, dinner." the vampire set the bowl next to Trevor's bed and watched the teen slowly slink out of the safety of his covers to get food. He really did look sick, Dracula's eyes softened, "Everything alright?"

Trevor stopped mid-mouthful of some soup and looked up at the dark figure, "Yeah, I'll be okay. Just a lot on my mind right now."

Dracula had a feeling it was more than just that, but he didn't push. He touched a hand to pat Trevor's head, "Get some rest little one, Lisa and I are here if you need us."

"Thank you." Dracula smiled a toothy one as he looked back at the teen but left and return to the family table.

Adrian hadn't touched his food, he sat there with his hands folded in his lap and a certain guilt in his eyes. "Father I...I have something I want to talk to you and mother about."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: A little short of a chapter but this was the best place to end it for the time being. As a reminder I am moving this weekend so please be patient with my updates for the next week or so, they might be more sporadic than usual.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lisa and Dracula make a tough decision, even though no one is happy about it, it's something they'll have to deal with.

Everything was driving him absolutely _insane_.

It felt like he just woke up one day and suddenly could smell everything with ten times the intensity. His father gave off almost no scent so that was no bother, his mother he could smell her blood but he'd been living off of her blood for years and the smell wasn't as enticing to him anymore since it was already in his system.

Adrian's frustrations lied with his best friend, Trevor _wreaked_ , but in the most fantastic way. Whenever he was near the Belmont it sounded like his blood sang to Adrian, calling to him to come take a drink. It made him hungry all of the time, a thirst that had never plagued him before was suddenly there constantly no matter if he drank a bit more of the blood reserve or not.

There was something more than the blood too, the other teens sweat when he sparred had much of the same effect on him. Trevor's presence out of nowhere became completely all but intolerable, and it left Adrian in a sour and rotten mood.

Behind every corner for the next few weeks Adrian could smell Trevor following him, waiting for him, searching for him, and whenever he tried to get close he just...he just couldn't. It was too much, Adrian felt like he would snap and do something terrible and obscene. Most of the time he'd have to clamp a hand over his nose and or mouth and quickly vacate the area, lock himself away in a part of the castle that Trevor wouldn't find for a long while.

Adrian was trying to work out all of his emotions one day in the practice room on a wooden dummy, no rhyme or rhythm to his swings as he hacked it apart for long enough that he broke out into a good sweat. That's where he had the realization what the real issue in all of this was.

He _liked_ Trevor. Along with all of the things they did together he wanted to kiss him, touch him, hold him close, and even drink his blood. The smell he'd been describing to himself as a wreak was absolutely addictive and wanting, that was his issue, his instincts wanted Trevor and he needed to learn to control that before he even thought about confessing any type of feelings.

Just on his luck who came to bother him not twenty minutes after his epiphany? Trevor waltzed in ignoring his demands to be left alone and instead to fight, so he obliged.

Halfway through the fight Adrian lost himself, he won and pinned Trevor down to the ground. The smell was heady and thick between them but Trevor looked near unaffected and that pissed Adrian off. Why was he the one going absolutely nuts and yet his friend was allowed to be his normal needy self?

His eyes never left the drip of blood from Trevor's neck, against all other judgment Adrian leaned and ran his tongue up the cut not once but twice. Eliciting a noise from Trevor that Adrian vowed never to forget, it was a weak squeaky moan and the blood on his tongue tasted delightful. He wanted more, _fuck_ , he wanted more.

"Alucard!" the name briefly broke Adrian's trance, stealing himself enough to jump back off of his best friend and watch him run from the room with a mutter of, "Fucking asshole."

What had he done? How could things ever go back to normal between them now?

\\\\\///\\\\\///

The next morning Adrian found himself packing a light bag of things from his room as he played all of yesterday back through his mind several times on a fast loop.

_"Best course of action would be for Adrian and I to take a journey, as I did soon after we married. Two months should suffice."_

Two long months he'd be away from home, away from his mother...away from Trevor. He'd been honest with his parents at dinner about the unhealthy thirst that had overwhelmed him lately, the good news was more or less it was a normal thing. Part of puberty for naturally born vampires.

Bad news was his father wanted to take him on a long journey and teach him how to control his thirsts properly. Ok so it wasn't a bad thing but he wasn't looking forward to being gone for so long, his mother would be fine but Trevor always had self-destructive tendencies.

Whether it be training himself too hard after Adrian beat him several times in a row, or staying up all night reading a book several times trying to get the same effect from a book that Adrian said he got. One time when they were younger Adrian had made a tiny comment at the dinner table about Trevor eating a lot and scarfing down his food, the brunette didn't eat for two days after that.

It was worrisome. Trevor was always far too hard on himself, took things people said hard to heart but tried to hide it. With them just having had a fight, or whatever you'd call the previous day, it might have set Trevor off into one of his funks.

If he wasn't here to fix it...well he didn't want to think about what could happen. Adrian just had to try and be positive, time apart could do them some good and if he stayed he would probably just end up hurting his friend more than he had. Yes, that was the part he needed to repeat in his head. Staying would hurt Trevor far more than leaving would.

It was done quickly and on short notice but by early afternoon they were all saying their goodbyes, his parents hugged and kissed farewells and then Adrian's mother gave him a soft hug and kiss on the forehead. Trevor was at her side, a grim look on his face, he didn't say much. "Come home soon."

That was reassuring at least even if there were no hugs from him or much of a goodbye.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

Several hours into their quiet walk Adrian sighed for what felt like the thousandth time. HIs father glanced down at him, "What's wrong Adrian?"

"I just hate this, having to be away from home, mother, Trevor, because I can't control myself. I don't like feeling out of control." he explained and readjusted the strap of his pack onto his other shoulder.

"You might not think so but I know how that feeling is, I'm not fond of it myself. In fact I pride myself on being in such good control most of the time. When your mother first came to the castle to live there it slowly began to drive me nuts, I tried to hold off as long as I could but eventually I just couldn't take it any longer." Dracula explained. Like his son the ache would always be there when away from home and his wife, but knowing this way they wouldn't hurt anyone in the future made it all worth the travel.

"That's why you went on a six-month walk about?"

"Partly yes, we'll be doing a small version of that so I can teach you what I learned about control during that time. And perhaps you'll make some other friends along the way." the tall vampire smiled down at his son.

With a shrug Adrian looked away for a moment, who needed friends he wasn't going to see on a regular basis? "So, are these cravings also linked to feelings? You said yours acted up when mother was around constantly." It made Adrian feel less weak knowing that his father had been through something similar.

"Yours is likely from hitting puberty but romantic feelings and sexual desire can have the same sort of effect when one isn't used to feeling them." the way his father said it made Adrian want to gag childishly, but he refrained. He knew the purpose of their trip but the blond really didn't want to listen to his father talk about _sexual desire_ or anything of that nature.

The first two weeks were the absolute worst, Dracula said several times that the sooner they got through the nitty-gritty information they could leave it behind them. It was all traveling and talking, talking about sex and how it worked. The teen hadn't been expecting that as part of the trip, surely his mother put Dracula up to this.

Being a big reader Adrian had an understanding of how biologically sex worked but not any first-hand experience in the act itself, that was information his father was trying to teach him. How to be safe and prepared, what was normal and what wasn't. Every day Adrian felt like he wanted to puke listening to his father and ignored the vampire every time he offered to answer questions.

It wasn't until the night of that two weeks end when Adrian finally spoke up, his voice hesitant and cheeks blazed with a dark blush. "What if....what about sex with a man?"

His father's piercing eyes bore into him for a long few seconds of silence, "Is that...what you prefer?" the tone was light, not meant to be judgemental but it worried Adrian anyways. "That's okay of course." he added quickly.

He swallowed hard but shrugged, "I'm not sure, I'd just like to be prepared for whatever may happen."

"True, better safe than sorry. It's not something I've personally practiced but I have been on this earth long enough to know a thing or two about it." Lacking full information Dracula explained everything he could to Adrian, this side of the subject seemed to almost fluster even the great vampire as well.

The very next day they reached their first destination, they entered a city and headed straight to the local morgue. It was all but empty upstairs but Dracula headed down into the basement without hesitation and called out, "Isaac? Are you around?"

Turning the corner Adrian saw a young man, several years older than himself, quite a bit taller, dark skin, and tattoos, standing over a body and examining it. Stopping whatever it was he was doing the young man smiled, "My Lord, what an unexpected surprise!" he stepped over to shake Dracula's hand as any good acquaintances would.

"Good to see you Isaac, glad to see you're looking well. This is my son Adrian, and Adrian this is my good friend Isaac." the vampire introduced them. Since entering the city the young half vampires senses had started going off like crazy but hadn't felt too uneasy until he came within this close distance to the human in front of him.

Spotting the trouble on his son's face Dracula touched his shoulder, "Remember the breathing I taught you? Try to relax. My apologies Isaac, my son is learning to control his thirst right now. In the meantime I figured I'd show him a bit of the world outside of my castle and introduce him to some people I know." he explained.

"It's fine, we all have to learn by practice. I um, I have plenty of room upstairs if you'd like to stay here for a few nights!" Isaac offered quickly and looking hopeful, "It wouldn't be any trouble if you did!"

Never had Adrian imagined a human being so delighted to see his father, it was a bit baffling. But they did end up staying for half a week and by then Adrian had learned well enough how to calm his senses in a bustling city with passerbyers. The teen was sure that meant they could go home already but according to his father it was harder to control oneself in one on one confrontations than in anonymous crowds.

As the other half of the week crawled by Adrian knew for sure he didn't like Isaac very much, the man gave him an odd feeling in the way he talked so poorly of humans. Now Adrian wasn't the biggest fan of them either but his mother and best friend were humans so he knew there were good ones out there, Isaac seemed to hate them all with a bloody passion. That was why he worked in the morgue, so that he only had to deal with dead ones.

"Your father saved me, did you know that?" Isaac announced on their last day staying with him when it was just the two of them alone, his father out getting supplies for the journey.

"I...didn't actually."

"The man who raised me, and I use that word lightly, beat me within an inch of my life one day. So I killed him and ran away, but no matter where I run to I can't seem to shake off people trying to enslave or kill me." Isaac paused and ran his thumb over one of his tattoos. "Your father was the first person to ever help me without expecting anything in return, he saved me from a group of bandits."

With all of the problems they went through sometimes Adrian forgot that humans had their own problems, racism was still a hugely widespread thing. Disgusting how humans could hate another just because their skin was differently colored. Adrian hated it but at least it made sense why humans hated and feared vampires.

It wasn't enough to make Adrian like Isaac, but it was enough for him to respect the other much more than he had before.

He was still happy to be leaving the next day and get back on the road. Wallachia was beautiful with spring coming to a close and summer beginning to take its place, flowers were blooming, trees were lush, grass was green. The scenery in a lot of places was stunning, if only Trevor were there to see it with him.

The other teen was on Adrian's mind on and off, during the nights he thought of Trevor the most and wished for them to be together seeing the countryside instead of just him and his father.

Five weeks into the journey they stopped at another of his father's acquaintances homes, this one was out in the middle of nowhere. A little log cabin that looked cozy from the outside and as Dracula knocked several dogs could be heard barking inside.

Adrian lit up, dogs meant dogs to pet and play with.

The door opened just a peek, enough for Adrian to see someone peeking out at them and then the door flung open. "Lord Dracula...what are you doing all the way out here?" A teen close to Adrian's age with gray messy hair and light skin.

Three dogs ran out of the door and started to jump and circle Adrian's legs, with a big smile he knelt down and reached to pet one but yanked his hand back. All of the dogs were missing an assortment of body chunks, limbs, fur, and had bones sticking out in general. They were dead, no undead.

But they barked, their tails wagged, just as any dog would. So he reached out again to pet their heads where he could, "Good dogs."

The gray-haired teen smiled at that, usually his animals freaked people out. "What do I owe the pleasure?"

Dracula gave this Hector kid a speech much like he had Isaac to explain what was going on, and Hector was more than happy to offer up his small home for the time being just as the other had. "If you like animals Adrian, there are more in here than just those three. I'll introduce you to them."

He liked Hector a lot more than he had Isaac, Adrian knew it had to do something with experiences. Isaac hated all humans to the point where he'd happily see them dead, he was intense and didn't have light conversations with Adrian. Whereas Hector was much more childish, he liked being alone with his animals away from humanity and Adrian could talk to him about the dogs, the local wildlife, things that didn't remind Adrian of genocide. He'd never been through the life experiences necessary to completely understand Isaac, but maybe that was why his father and the young man got along so well.

During those weeks with Hector Adrian was able to forget a little more about home, being able to hang out with someone close to his age and play with the undead animals was distraction enough.

Dracula watched them often with a smile, he was happy to see the two getting along. That was rare for Hector to like other humans so in a way this interaction was good for both of the young ones.

By the end of their two weeks long stay the blond officially was happy to call Hector his friend and wanted to steal one or two of the animals to take home, but restrained himself.

On their way towards home Dracula asked, "Did you like meeting Isaac and Hector?"

"Hector more so, but yes to both."

"Good, you did very well. You're beginning to put your control practice into motion without even thinking about it. I didn't see you slip up once while staying with Hector." his father complimented, it washed a feeling of pride through Adrian and he couldn't help but smile with a curt nod.

His smile turned sly and Adrian asked, "Father, could Trevor and I get a cat?"

"I....will talk to your mother about it." That sort of answer was typically a no, but Adrian had at least a week or more to hassle his father over it and convince him as to why having a cat would benefit their household. Hopefully Trevor liked cats because Adrian was intent on getting one.

The closer they walked to home the more the teen felt his stomach clenching tight thinking about seeing Trevor, would he be able to control himself now that he had all of the knowledge and practice from his father? Probably, and honestly that wasn't what worried him so much.

HIs worry stemmed from his feelings, he wasn't sure if he could admit those feelings out loud let alone to Trevor's face.

Still, his excitement overshadowed the worry. Adrian was just excited to be going home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for being patient, moving is done and my internet is finally up so I can post chapters again. Dracula has a lot to teach Adrian about but he wasn't expecting one of those things to be the birds and the bees.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trevor's two months without Adrian isn't as relaxing as the walkabout, he and Lisa aren't in for a great time. At least he's got Sypha to help keep his spirits up.

Trevor walked around in a complete auto-piloted daze for the first three days after Adrian left with Dracula to go on some stupid walkabout to get his thirst under control. He'd bumped straight into Lisa, nearly knocking the poor woman over in the hallway, at some point. She frowned and asked exasperated, "What's wrong? You've been like this since those two left."

"Huh? Oh I um, I guess I've just been thinking about....things."

"Things?" the blond woman tilted her head, "Do you need to talk about anything?" she offered, but Trevor shook his head. "No, just thinking. I'll be fine, sorry for bumping into you like that."

It was Adrian, he couldn't get dumb blond Adrian with his piercing eyes, shirt off, tongue on his neck, out of his fucking head. He wasn't completely stupid, despite what some people thought, and he knew what he'd done in the shower was jacking off. It was sexual, but that sort of stuff you were supposed to do with or be thinking about girls, or so his parents had taught him.

Belmont men wooed and married women and had children to carry on the name and their lifestyle of hunting creatures of the night. His father had always told him that it was his duty to have at least one child, the same went for his sisters. Now that he was the only one left that meant the best way to honor his family was to create one of his own with some girl and teach them everything he could about fighting monsters.

There were so many problems with that. First off being that he lived with a few monsters, Trevor cared about them very much and didn't want to drive a wedge between them by becoming a Belmont like his ancestors, cruelly killing all monsters even those who did no harm.

The second and biggest problem, Trevor didn't like any girls and had absolutely no desire to meet any girls to marry. For the last few days after going to bed at night Trevor would masturbate, start out thinking about different girls his age he'd seen around the village, think about their cleavage, their legs, anything that Trevor knew was supposed to be sexy to men.

He'd managed an erection each time with the help of his fist but soon the thoughts bored him and involuntarily they would replay that day with Adrian. How it felt, how the air smelled thick, his arms tightly pinned to the floor. Each time he thought of that he came with ease, probably too quickly and left him with tears prickling his eyes.

The guilt for feeling lust towards his best friend, for letting down his ancestors, it was all nagging at the back of his brain. At least with the blond vampire gone for a little while it gave Trevor time to think and sort his thoughts out, he still missed his friend every day he was away.

One evening Trevor decided to go into the nearby village, which other than Lisa both he and Adrian did often enough. The village knew their local doctor best but most people also recognized her boys that would come into the village to shop, just wander around, talk to people, and just keep busy or make a little trouble.

Passing down the street a few people smiled at him in acknowledgment or gave him a little wave, a few even coughed out a, "Evenin'." that he all returned with a fake smile each time. A group of young girls that hung around outside of the local whorehouse drawing in customers saw him and started to giggle, they did that every time he and Adrian walked by but never tried to lure them in. Probably afraid that Lisa would reject their business or perhaps beat the shit out of them, Trevor couldn't blame them. He'd never seen the woman act violent but he was positive she had it in her if need be.

"Evening ladies." he greeted and listened to them giggle as he walked down the street and stopped outside of the tavern and took in a deep breath before letting it out slowly. Trevor always remembered his mother and father relaxing after long battles with alcohol, it always seemed to calm their nerves. There was a huge stash of alcohol in the castle that normally went untouched other than special occasions, it was locked up tight with Dracula's magic so that the teens wouldn't get into it.

Building up his courage Trevor walked in, the tavern was bustling and filled with locals and non-locals drinking and having a good time. The young hunter noticed two small parties of non-locals probably just passing through for the night, one looked like a few merchants and the others were probably hunters or mercenaries by the weapons they carried.

He slid up into an empty stool at the bar counter and reached into his pocket for his money. The bartender looked happy and relaxed and asked him, "What can I get you?"

"Whatever this will buy me." Trevor set two gold coins on the counter, what was left of his chore allowance from the last month. Picking up the coins to look them over briefly the man frowned lightly, "You're that doctors kid aren't you? You're pretty young to be hanging in here, you're what fourteen?"

"Fifteen." Trevor correct with a scowl, the man had been more than willing to offer him a drink before he recognized him as Lisa's kid. He loved his sudo-mother with all of his heart but damn being her family made it hard to get away with things in this village.

"Are you going to serve me a drink or can I get my money back?" Frowning deeper the bartender gave the coins back, "I don't want to piss your mother off, she's been good to us. But if you're desperate for a drink try to get someone else to buy it for you, then if she gets mad I can pin it on them." What a bastard.

Swiping the coins back Trevor snarled, "Fine. Nobody in this village has any balls.." he muttered the last part under his breath and turned in his chair to look around the busy room. A non-local would be his best bet.

The merchants would probably be stingy and he'd have to convince them, but the mercenaries would probably make him pay more. He'd give the merchants a go, he approached the table with a careless smile.

"Hey uh, sorry to bother you guys but one of you want to do me a solid and buy me a drink?" Trevor held up his two coins, "You can keep the change, the bartender is just being stingy cause of my age."

The man on the right was the first to say anything, standing from his chair. "I'll do it for you, I'll even pay for you. But after your drink you have to have a chat with me outside." he said smoothly. Without thinking Trevor perked up, "That's it, hell yeah! Thanks man."

The woman and man at the same table and part of the merchant group exchanged a look, the woman with brown hair opening her mouth to protest but was cut off when the standing man muttered, "Shut your mouth, he already agreed. Come on kid."

The alcohol was strong and burned going down, it made Trevor want to gag but he downed every drop quickly. He just wanted to get in, have a drink, and go home hopefully to sleep better than he had been with the alcohol in his stomach. As promised Trevor met the tall man outside at the side of the bar and leaned back against the wall crossing his arms, his body feeling a bit lethargic from drinking the alcohol so quickly. "So um...what did you want to talk about?"

"Fuck, I know you're a kid but are you really that dense?" the man chuckled. "That's fine, it suits you, it's cute." He leaned over Trevor, pressing one arm against the wall next to the teens head, their faces barely a few inches apart.

In his slightly dizzy vision Trevor could still make out what the man looked like, even with it being kind of dark outside. He had a very generic looking face with short cut black hair, dark brown eyes and thin eyebrows, he wore heavy boots and a long black coat. Trevor frowned, "I'm not fucking cute, what are you even talking about?"

Trevor froze when the man's other hand touched his side tenderly, not forceful and touched it's way down to his flat hip and brushed his thumb over the fabric of Trevor's pants slowly. "Look don't worry, I'll show you the ropes, and I'll take whatever you want to give me. Maybe your hand, or your mouth, if you're feeling generous maybe I can put something in...here." the man said in a soft and utterly flirty voice, his hand working back and cupped one of Trevor's asscheeks and rubbed a finger over the crease.

Immediately the teen shoved the man away and clenched his fists, "Oh _that's_ what you want." it finally hit him, "Sorry, I'm not a whore so you're out of luck. I'll give you the money I owe you and then I'm going home."

Looking rather displeased the dark haired man steadied himself, "That isn't how this works kid, you agreed, I bought you a drink, now you get me off." he demanded in a low and guttural tone. Shifting closer he made the mistake of trying to touch Trevor again, not expecting it when a fist came flying in his face and sent him to the ground with a broken and badly bleeding nose, crying out and swearing loudly. "Fuck, fuck, _fuck_!" he screeched, "You little shit, you broke my nose!"

"Yeah well, I told you no, so..." Trevor shrugged nonchalantly and tossed his two gold coins onto the ground lazily. "Don't you dare go to the local Doctor's office for that broken nose either, I don't want scum like you around Lisa. If I hear you've been to see her then a broken nose isn't the only thing you'll have to worry about." he threatened before stalking off, his head becoming fuzzier but it wasn't bad enough that he couldn't make it home.

Curled into bed Trevor yanked his pants off and bit his bottom lip softly as he started to jerk off slowly, though disgusting that man touching him at left a little want in Trevor's blood. As he grew hard and heated suddenly the teen paused, he wanted to try something but wasn't sure about it.

"He said...he was going to put it here?" Trevor whispered to himself and palmed his inner thigh with his free hand, shifting and touching a finger to the small puckered hole of his ass. "That...can't be right..." a blush darkening on his cheeks as he decided to try it.

Slowly pushing one finger in it definitely felt...weird, not painful or good, just plain weird. He decided not to take his finger out as he started to pump his erection again. "Oh fuck.." he grunted, something about doing this made the muscles of his ass around his finger start to tingle and feel just a little good, spreading his legs a bit more Trevor wiggled his finger and slowly dragged it in and out. " _Fuck..._ " he softly breathed.

An orgasm washed over him not long after, tears prickled his eyes and his body was left with faint shivers as he laid there in bed looking at his ceiling. It was a weird experience and to be honest Trevor wasn't sure how to feel about what he'd just done, part of him was excited at the thought of experimenting this new way, and the rest of him felt guilt and confusion.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

A week passed and Trevor was just trying to busy himself and not think about that one night, he'd helped Lisa clean a bunch of the castle and helped her out at the clinic quite a few times. He didn't understand most of what she did but he was good at following her instructions.

He finally decided it would be good for him to go for a nice little walk through the village, he'd been cooping himself up too much. It was midday and as Trevor entered the village he was soon regretting it, he knew Lisa had been getting a lot of patients with bad colds but this was ridiculous. People were coughing and sneezing like there was no tomorrow. It made him want to cover his nose and mouth whenever he walked close to another person.

Staring at a particularly sickly looking old man Trevor wasn't paying attention and bumped straight into someone, luckily not knocking them over. "Oh shit, sorry about that!" he apologized right away.

Blue speaker robes, orangey-red hair, blue eyes that met with his as they blinked almost in time with each other. "You, you're...that girl....Sylvia...no, Sypha!" Trevor pointed.

Her face brightened, "Oh wow, I can't believe you remember my name after all this time! Yours was Trevor right? What a strange coincidence seeing you here!"

"How could I forget you, you were so cool when you opened that door with magic and then um...blue up that wall by accident?" Trevor teased with a grin, Sypha flushed a little in embarrassment but still smiled herself.

"I've gotten much better at magic since then I'll have you know. I only blow things up once a month now." she joked making them both laugh.

There was just something about Sypha that Trevor felt at ease about, maybe it was her easy-going demeanor or the fact that she was a Speaker. Either way he knew that he liked her, she was cool.

"What are you doing here in this tiny village?" Trevor asked.

"My group of Speakers was just passing through to resupply but we might end up staying for a few weeks, the elderly in this village has become quite sick and a good number of them don't have people to help care for them until they get better." she said with empathy. "Are you busy? We should find a place to sit and actually get to know each other."

He'd like little more so he nodded, "Yeah I've got time."

"Is your friend around?"

"Adrian? No he's off traveling with his father, they should be back late next month." he answered feeling a tinge of loneliness in the statement alone, but being with Sypha helped wash some of that away. "You're not helping out the other Speakers care for people?"

"I am, but since I'm a kid they don't let me help too much. They say I study and practice too much as it is and that I need to go have fun and be a kid." she pouted and crossed her arms.

"Well as long as you're around here you can always come to bother me, I don't have much to do with Adrian gone." Trevor slung an arm around Sypha's shoulders in a friendly gesture, she looked comfortable with it and nodded, "I'd like that a lot."

Sypha was, well she was awesome. Trevor hadn't connected so fast with someone since, well ever. Even he and Adrian had taken time to warm up to each other when they were younger. She was brilliant in a book-smart sort of way that Adrian was, and her magic skills were unbelievable for a girl that was only fourteen. Despite her being a Speaker and her outer looks telling Trevor she'd be a stick in the mud she was really fun to hang out with and talk to, she wasn't a prude but she tended to keep him in line if he went too far.

They hung out over the next four weeks between Sypha helping her fellow Speakers care for sickly and Trevor doing the same by helping Lisa at the clinic. When he was about to go out early one day he snagged a snack in the kitchen for breakfast and Lisa asked, "Where are you headed off to so early, going to see that girlfriend of yours?" she teased at first but her face looked a bit grim and slightly paler than normal, her eyes hung like she hadn't slept well.

"Just a girl who's a friend." he corrected softly, "Are you feeling okay Lisa?"

Clearing her throat the blond woman nodded, "Just a bit overworked is all, so many cases of that flu going around and it's only spreading faster. I can administer medicine for it but the body has to be strong enough to fight it off and a lot of people in the village are either very young or old."

That was the first time he'd heard Lisa call it the flu, that meant it was much worse than he'd been expecting. "That's terrible, maybe you should take the day off and get some rest." he suggested.

"Can't. So many people need help here Trevor, the Speakers can only do so much without actual medicine. You go play with your friend, try to stay away from crowded areas to avoid getting sick." she said with concern and had to clear her throat again to avoid coughing. "I'll be fine, I'll take a short day, promise."

"Okay." he answered gently, "I'll see you later for dinner." Trevor headed out to meet up with Sypha and get a snack to eat at one of the street vendors, he paid like a good gentleman.

"You're worried about your mom huh?"

"How could you guess?"

"Because you said she looked sick this morning and you haven't cracked a single joke about anything today." Sypha reached and touched his arm sweetly, "You can skip out on me to look after her, I'd understand."

"I wanted to but she's so damn stubborn, I've never known how to talk back to her even if it's for her own good." they found a place to sit and just people watch as they nibbled on their snacks, Sypha leaned her cheek onto his shoulder. She always has those soft little ways of making him feel better without forcing him to say anything he didn't want to.

"Did you know she's my hero?" Trevor said it softly but with pride and confidence in what he said.

"She is? I could definitely see that, but I'd like to hear why." she said. Trevor could chalk that up to Speakers loving to hear stories but he knew Sypha was asking because she was, she was Sypha. And she was sweet and awesome like that and always let Trevor talk things out when he needed despite them not having known each other very long.

"She saved me when I was younger and after I lost my real family," he started, he'd already told Sypha that the Tepes' weren't his biological family, "She saved me, took me in like her own even though her husband was reluctant. Despite that and who I was, she took me in, let me cry like a baby, let me babble when I needed to. That and, fuck Sypha, she's so smart and she doesn't take shit from anyone. Tough but kind, what a combination." he finished saying.

"She sounds amazing." Sypha said back, she'd only briefly met Lisa once when she came to the castle to get Trevor to come to hang out. Walking right up to a dark looming castle by herself without any fear in her bones.

Smiling Trevor said, "You remind me of her."

"Really? That's quite a compliment."

The two ended up cutting their hang out short, Trevor's worry got the better of him and he went to the clinic to check on Lisa. Sypha had offered to come with but Trevor insisted he'd be fine on his own and she could head off to do her own thing.

Upon arriving Trevor found the clinic empty and locked up, he headed straight home to find Lisa in one of the hallways barely holding herself up weakly against the wall. "Lisa!" he cried out and ran to put his arms around her and help the woman lean on him to rest. "You _are_ sick...Let's get you to bed."

He was younger but strong so he had no trouble getting Lisa to her room and tucking her into bed, her eyes bleary with a sickness. "You're burning up." he said touching her forehead.

For a week Lisa wasn't too bad, she was weak but with Trevor's help she could get up out of bed to the bathroom or keep her legs strong, little minor things. Trevor wouldn't let her do much else, she needed rest and medicine and luckily she had a small stockpile of the concoction she'd been using to boost the villager's immune system that he was giving to her.

She was often trying to do things herself and Trevor would catch her and scold the woman like a child out of worry. Lisa commented a lot that she didn't want Trevor to catch the sickness from her, but he ignored them, she would have done the same if he were sick. Sypha stopped by every few days to check on them, Trevor wasn't letting her stay for the same reason, he didn't need her getting sick guilting on his conscious but she still checked on them and brought some groceries on and off.

Another half a week later Trevor knew he was sick, he was showing all of the signs for beginning stages. The coughing and cold symptoms, his body went from hot to cold randomly in spikes. He couldn't stop to rest much though, he'd been hiding from Sypha that he was sick and Lisa was getting into the harder battle. She was sick and completely bedridden now relying on Trevor to do everything for her, she was delirious half the time muttering things that didn't make sense or calling for her husband.

She needed him and that's what pushed him on. Even as he got worse himself. Getting close to the month's end he couldn't hide how sick he was from Sypha but forbid her to come in by locking her out. After so long of trying to wait she couldn't do much and left but vowed to return in a few days to check on them once again and again and again, and that the day she got no answer at the door she wouldn't hesitate to burst in with her magic to check on them. Thankfully she seemed healthy as could be.

He and Lisa were sharing a room now, they were both so weak that it was tiring to get up and go do things and then run over to check on Lisa. Trevor was almost bedridden himself, he would be if not for the fact that his loved one depended on him. They both coughed up storms and had completely raw throats, their eyes bloodshot and their bodies restless but exhausted, shivers and hot flashes, unable to keep much in their stomachs other than water, some soup, and medicine.

Medicine that at some point Trevor had to do what he wasn't good at, read and figure out how to make the mixture when they ran out of the tiny stash that was left in the castle. His dreams were filled with nightmares of the past and pleasant dreams of he and Adrian sitting together, a lot of time just sitting out on one of the stoops of the castle and looking at the stars. Adrian telling him what different constellations there were.

Every morning, and a lot of times in between from nightmares or painful discomfort, he'd wake up on his little nest built onto the floor next to Lisa's bed and spend the day taking care of them. Answering the door if Sypha came over and talking to her through the door for a bit, she always kept his spirits up but sometimes they ended up snapping at each other over Trevor's stubborn refusal to let her help.

Lisa's fever had broken just the previous night, she still needed a lot of rest and care but it seemed she was through the worst of the sickness and was resting easier now. Struggling to get himself up and on his feet the morning after Trevor could barely see but the one thing he managed to do was open the window to Lisa's room for some fresh air to filter in. Trevor heard some faint voices outside that he hoped to the gods were real and not his mind crazy with fever.

"it feels good to be home." Adrian's voice sounded. "It does." Dracula agreed, "It's early so they might be asleep, try to be quiet Adrian."

A tiny fire instantly rekindled in Trevor's mind, with whatever energy he'd woken up with he used to half run down the hall and through the throne room that was connected to the large entry door. He had to stop and hold onto the throne to catch his breath and try not to puke, the large doors slowly squeaked open revealing two familiar figures in Trevor's fuzzy vision.

"Adrian..." he said out of breath, the shorter figure dropped his bag and rushed in front of him. Trevor had no more energy to keep up any facade he'd been hoping for. Trevor threw himself into Adrian's arms and hugged him tightly, "I'm so happy to see you!" Overexerting himself like that was his undoing and knowing he was safe, the relief that Adrian was home was all he needed for his fuzzing vision to fade to black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double upload today to thank everyone for being patient with my moving. Also I was excited to post this chapter because fun things happen.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things start getting better for everybody, and then a bit heated for the boys.

_The stars were beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky tonight and the moon shone brightly at half mass._

_"This one right here is Leo the lion and that one over there is Cancer the crayfish-" Adrian reached up pointing at the stars to draw them in Trevor's vision from where they laid shoulder to shoulder._

_Trevor tried to use his imagination to picture what Adrian described but it came out blotchy and he mostly just saw lines between the stars. Still he smiled, it was fun listening to his friend, he'd always enjoyed listening to Adrian more than doing actual reading._

_"That one looks like a heart." Trevor pointed himself like they were out watching clouds, Adrian snorted a laugh and nudged Trevor with his elbow. "That isn't a constellation."_

_"It could be!" he nudged Adrian back a bit harder, the blond sat up on his elbows with a pout on his face. "You are such a brat Trevor." They both smiled and chuckled together, despite the outside night air feeling cool Trevor felt warm at the moment._

_"It's actually pretty cute, it suits you to be an_ idiot. _" Adrian commented, it left Trevor blinking and he felt a sudden hand on his cheek and then Adrian was close and leaning over him. Their lips close, blond hair tickling his neck, his hands clasping up into the other teen's shirt with anticipating._

_\\\\\///\\\\\///_

Trevor's dream was cut short by him waking up, eyes still closed but his conscious was beginning to wake and his senses liven up. The first thing he noticed was a wonderfully cool hand stroking its thumb over his hand, it felt wonderful since all of his skin felt like it was burning in fire. A feeling he hated unlike any other, he'd prefer cold over hot any day.

Prying his heavy eyelids open he drearily looked over to see Adrian sitting next to his bed, they were in Trevor's room, his feet up on the bed and he was reading with one hand as he stroked his thumb over Trevor's hand slowly. "Mn...Adrian..?"

Adrian shut his book and set it aside quickly to look over, "You're finally awake." the blond smiled, relief evident on his face. When the sick teen tried to push himself up Adrian moved to sit on the edge of the bed and gently push him back down, "No don't get up, you're still very sick even if your fever finally broke."

That was fine, his entire body felt like it was filled with heavy rocks anyways.

Trevor closed his eyes again to rest them but continued talking, "I thought I'd dreamt that you came home...I'm glad it wasn't just a dream." He was speaking so calmly and openly, putting his heart directly on his sleeve without care because of the sickness. The brunette tried to lean his head into Adrian's hand when it began to pull away from his shoulder, "It's nice and cold..." he muttered.

With a small smile still Adrian left his hand for the moment, "Mother is mostly better thanks to you."

Hearing that Trevor remembered how bad Lisa had been, his eyes snapped open half-lidded, "I'm so sorry, I wanted to do more for her but then I got sick and-" a cold hand pressed over his mouth to silence him. Adrian shook his head, "Don't apologize, you did all you could and for that I'm forever grateful. You helped plenty Trevor, don't forget that. Now it's your turn to rest up and recover."

Suddenly Trevor felt like he was twelve years old again and first having been brought to the castle. Bedridden with Adrian at his side, only this time there were much kinder words exchanged between them. "How was your trip?"

"It helped, I can finally stand to be around you again and not want to kill you." the vampire teased, Trevor managed a small and short laugh then closed his eyes again. "You should try and sleep more, you still look ready to pass out."

"Mn.." Trevor whined, "I just woke up..." but he gave in easily, "Will you read out loud to me? Whatever it is that you're reading?"

"Of course." Before Adrian finished reading the first-page out loud Trevor was already back asleep.

Adrian rarely left his side for the next three days, helping Trevor to the bathroom, drawing baths for him, bringing him food, reading to him. For what felt like the first time Trevor was able to relax while being taken care of, it was a bit nice to be fussed over by his best friend. It made him feel very loved.

Dracula had come to check in on him once or twice as well but Lisa wasn't allowed near him until he was better, the vampires were sturdy and very unlikely to get sick but she could easily catch the sickness again if luck wasn't on her side.

On that third day the brunette was feeling much better, his family was going to let him out of bed rest in another day or two finally. Sitting up in bed that morning Adrian was sitting next to him so they were shoulder to shoulder, he'd been doing that occasionally since Trevor was running so hot and Adrian naturally ran cold.

They were just talking, enjoying talking to each other. "I wish you could have been there, Hector was pretty cool and he had all of these undead animals. Which sounds weird but they acted just like normal pets-" the vampire began explaining and motioned with his hands because he was so excited thinking about the animals, he still wanted that cat.

"Sounds like you had a good time." Trevor smiled, seems they'd both made a friend while away from each other. "Um, can't remember if I mentioned but..." a blush dusted the Belmont's cheeks and he looked away from his friend, "I missed you when you were gone."

That left a soft feeling settling in Adrian's heart, "Maybe I missed you a little bit too."

Pretending to be fake offended Trevor crossed his arms and pouted, "I think you missed me more than just a little! In fact I bet you thought about me every day!" Uncrossing his arms Trevor placed a well-placed poke into the blond's side knowing full well he was ticklish.

Adrian jumped and swatted Trevor's hand, "Hey stop it!" Even being older they always brought out the childish play in each other, the young hunter poked his friend again, and again getting the same reaction before his wrists were grabbed and forced down onto the bed. "Stop!" Adrian said with a giggle in his throat from the tickles and sighed in relief when it stopped.

Without thinking it through fully the older teen leaned and flunked his forehead against Trevor's and sighed again, "By the fucking Gods you frustrate me sometimes."

"But you love me that way." the younger said with no guilt and meaning it completely platonically at the moment.

"True." Adrian said so quietly that Trevor barely heard it and wouldn't have caught it if he didn't see the other teens lips move. "Trevor I..." he said in that same quiet voice to catch the other's gaze. Trevor felt a spark in his chest and his throat felt closed up, he couldn't find a single word to say.

All he could think about was that dream, stargazing with Adrian and then suddenly they were kissing. Adrian turned and dipped his head slowly just like he was going to kiss Trevor, and in return the younger teen started to close his eyes and leaned in.

Before anything could happen a huge explosion rocked the castle, the teens yanked apart. Adrian was up and out of the bed fully ready to kill something and defend his home and family. Two long minutes passed of complete silence, the door creaked open to the room.

"Trevor!" a blue hurricane threw herself into the room, rushing over and tackling Trevor into a hug. "I was so worried, you didn't answer the door at our usual time, I thought you were _dead_ you idiot!!" Sypha shouted and clung to her friend. Yanking back she looked him over and touched his face to make sure she wasn't dreaming, he was alive. "Thank goodness."

"Sypha did you...blow the front door down?" Trevor asked.

"I told you I would if you didn't answer me didn't I?" Indeed she had but with being sick and having Adrian home he'd completely forgotten about worrying poor Sypha to death. "Uhh...oh this is Sypha." Trevor looked over at Adrian who was still in a stance ready to cut the red-head down but slowly relaxing seeing it was a friend and not foe.

Lowering his arms finally Adrian breathed in and out a few times, "Nice to meet you."

Finally releasing the brunette from her death grips Sypha stood and extended her hand for Adrian to shake, which he took, "We met once when we were young, very briefly."

"..." Adrian cocked his head but said, "Ah, that Speaker girl in the forest. I remember. Wonderful to see you again then." he rephrased.

Dracula walked through the door after that rubbing his temples, "I fixed it but you really did a number on my front door young Miss."

With a polite bow of her head Sypha apologized, "I'm so sorry about that sir." Luckily Trevor had previously warned the girl who lived in the castle so she wasn't all that surprised to see a full-blown vampire walking about with the family.

"You're forgiven just please, don't do that again."

\\\\\///\\\\\///

Sypha only had another week to stay in the village, most of the people were getting much better or didn't need the Speakers much thanks to Dracula working overtime to help his wife deliver a stronger medicine he knew of.

At first Trevor had been worried about the two getting along, he knew that just because they were both important to him didn't mean they would like each other. Luckily they did, Adrian was a bit more reserved around Sypha than just him but he was opening up, teasing them both, playing around, it was like a dream come true for the Belmont.

And neither of them had spoken of that almost-kiss, it went mostly forgotten between them.

The day before she left it was just Trevor and Sypha out in the nearby woods for the moment, he was trying to teach the girl how to properly throw knives. She wasn't very good at it, guess there was a first for everything.

"You look like you have something on your mind." she called while trying to aim the knife in her hand at the faraway tree.

"How can you always tell?" he muttered and played with a knife, carving it into a small chunk of wood as he sat on a rock watching Sypha. "It's Adrian."

"Did you two have a fight or something?" She asked and threw the knife, complete miss and it went straight into the ground nearby the tree. The red-head made a frustrated noise but retrieved the knife and went back to her spot to try again.

"No nothing like that. He almost kissed me last week, at least I think that's what he was trying to do. We haven't talked about it." he told her outright.

Stopping her stance Sypha climbed on top of the large rock and sat with Trevor crossing her legs and setting the knife aside to give him her full attention. "How did it make you feel?"

"Confused." that was the only way he could describe it, everything about Adrian when it came to these weird feelings made him feel utterly confused.

"And what if I were to kiss you, right now?" Sypha made no move like she was going to, and there were no signs in her face that showed she wanted to. "How would that make you feel?"

Trevor's face scrunched up, "Ew that'd be like kissing a sister!" She seemed to agree with him but didn't say anything about it. "But kissing Adrian doesn't feel like kissing a brother?"

No. They'd never been referred to ask brothers even if Lisa and Dracula felt like parents, he'd never thought of Adrian like his sibling. There was just a different feeling between them than that. "No not really."

"I think you should talk to him about it." Sypha hopped off the rock, taking the knife with her and threw it, her hands glowing with magic. A strong gust of wind took control of the knife and sent it straight into the tree, she grinned and turned to Trevor proudly with hands on her hips.

"That's cheating Sypha."

Saying goodbye to such a good friend was hard the next day, there were hugs exchanged between the three and many goodbyes. The young speaker left with a promise to return whenever her group was in the area.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

The young hunters birthday came and went like every year and for the time he and Adrian were the same age.

For better or worse life went mostly back to normal, it was Trevor and Adrian against the world. At least that's the way Adrian acted, just like things had always been.

Trevor, on the other hand, felt this ever-growing tightness either in his chest, his stomach, and sometimes it went further down. At least a few times a week Trevor would get himself off either in the shower or in his bedroom and he'd been experimenting further using not just his hand on his dick, but his fingers. Adrian was slowly leaking into his fantasies over the next few weeks until he became the only fantasy.

He didn't have the courage to ask Adrian about the almost-kiss but the thoughts of it, plus wet dreams and his body going crazy with want, he'd been trying to get a bit more feedback from his best friend without revealing anything.

Trevor would sit close to Adrian any time he got a chance, making sure part of their arms or legs were pressed together, sometimes teasingly leaning his head on Adrian's back or shoulder for attention. The vampire always acted like it didn't affect him a single bit, did that mean the almost-kiss had been an accident, heat of that one moment?

Trevor knew that he could hunt game and monsters with little fear in his heart but the thought of taking charge and kissing Adrian terrified him, he wasn't good at emotions, he wasn't good at _showing_ emotions like this. That's why he covered most things up with his childish behavior and humor.

So when a day came around, one day he'd remember it as one of the best of his teen years, it was pouring rain outside all day long so he pestered Adrian continuously to go out and spar in the mud. Eventually the other teen gave in, they practiced for a long time, getting caked in so much mud from the forest that even the heavy rain couldn't wash it all away fast enough before more plastered on.

Everything came to a halt while rolling around and Adrian ended up over him, straddling Trevor's lap but not pinning him down. They'd both just stopped and that was how it ended up, panting and pelvis' pressed together. Shifting his hips the blond gave him a puzzled look, "Are you aroused Trevor?"

He was, _fuck_ he was hard and there was no hiding it. "N-No way, you're imagining things!" Trevor cried out and pushed Adrian off of him and to the side, they both scrambled up from their mud pile. "We should go home." the vampire stated, something odd in his voice and a strange look in his eyes. Was he mad, disgusted?

"Look Adrian, I'm sor-hey!" the other teen grabbed his hand and started rushing them back to the castle, "I'm sorry, I know that was weird but we can just forget about it I promise!" Trevor called and was completely ignored.

They tracked mud through the halls of the castle straight to one of the bathrooms with a shower, Lisa wasn't going to be happy about that when she saw it the next morning. "Adrian?" he tried again but was physically shoved under the shower waters hot spray fully clothed, mud started to melt off of him and down the drain.

"Take your shirt and pants off." Adrian's tone of voice sent a hot shiver down Trevor's spine, hotter than the water pouring over him and went straight to his groin. He hesitated but once his Adrian started so did he, pulling his shirt and pants off and leaving them in a wet pile to the side leaving them both in just boxers.

Moving close the blond cupped his cheek, Trevor saw it coming but it still felt like a surprise when Adrian kissed him. He closed his eyes and leaned up into the soft kiss, it was cool yet heated as Trevor tried to find his rhythm. This was their first kiss and it showed for both of them, but they slowly melded into each other, Trevor tilted his head but winced and pulled back. "Ow!"

One of Adrian's fangs had nicked his bottom lip, a small drop of blood bubbling there. "Sorry." the vampire muttered, kissing Trevor again a little more carefully but swiping his tongue over the bloody lip and making a small pleased noise from it.

"Touch me." the taller boy muttered against Trevor's lips, "Huh?" Guiding the brunette's hand to the trim of his underwear. "Please, _please_ Trevor, I feel like I'm going crazy."

How could he argue with that? Although nervous Trevor pushed his hand past the waistband, the blond curls of Adrian's pubic hair were light and barely there but tickled his hand as he took a handful of the hard erection tenting against the underwear.

It was hot and wet in Trevor's hand and felt nothing like his own, it pulsed with want and Adrian leaned his head onto his friend's shoulder to groan loudly. He squeezed his hand gently and began to move it, slowly up and down to get a feel for it, something about this felt right, his hand picked up the pace quickly and twisted in a gentle way that he always did to himself when he jerked off.

When Adrian spilled out into his hand it was sticky and a bit gross but nothing to turn his nose up at, pulling his hand out Trevor let the white fluid wash away down the drain. As the blond shivered against him from orgasm Trevor shyly looked down at his own tented underwear, he reached to touch himself but found his hand stopped. "Not yet, let's go."

Again he was whisked away down the hallways, this time just wet and not muddy at least, Adrian locked the door to his own bedroom behind them before pulling Trevor by the arm and kissing him again. "You should get on the bed."

"Hm?" Trevor muttered, dizzy from the heat of the kiss, "We're still a bit wet." Running down the hallways had winded at least some of the wetness away. Adrian wasn't taking that answer and pushed his friend back onto the bed before crawling in next to him, Trevor tried to curl away on his side shyly. "I um, I think I'm gonna go to my room."

A cool arm captured his waist and pulled him back flushed against Adrian's bare chest, "Don't run away." With more confidence than he had Adrian's hand slipped in and grasped his erection, slowly pumping it. Trevor's mouth hung open with a weak moan escaping, he grabbed two handfuls of the bedsheets and squirmed. "I don-I don't know if I..." his voice trailed off, he had no idea what he'd been trying to say.

"It's okay, just let yourself feel good Trev." It was hard, hard to just let everything go. All thoughts and instincts to fight and get away and just let Adrian touch him. The best he managed was no letting himself run away, and when Adrian ran a thumb over the head of his cock that simple thing sent him over the edge.

They laid pressed together as Trevor came down from his high, one that left his toes curled a bit and his eyes fluttering. Turning around to face his friend, could they even still call each other just that now? Adrian was looking at him with slight worry held in his face, quietly waiting for a reaction to what they'd just done.

The brunette wiped away a few tears built up in his eyes with his hand before scooting closer to tuck his head under Adrian's chin. A thick blanket was pulled over them and then one of the vampire's arms curled around Trevor's back to hold him close as they both drifted off in the afterglow of their climaxes.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys finally get some stuff out in the open and come to an agreement as our Teen Arc comes to a close.

When he and his father first walked up onto the property Adrian felt this tingle of excitement and just a little bit of dread, what if Trevor had decided he didn't want to see Adrian?

That thought was quickly tossed out the window when the two vampires walked in and he saw Trevor leaning onto a wall to come to greet them, his feet took over automatically to rush and greet his friend.

"I'm so happy to see you!" Trevor said as he threw himself into Adrian's chest and proceeded to pass out. It wasn't the homecoming they'd been expecting but it was good timing but both vampires wished they'd returned sooner.

Lisa was conscious enough to tell them about the sickness that had plagued the village, that she'd caught it from work and Trevor had likely caught it from her and taking care of her. Dracula got straight to work whipping up an extra strong batch of similar medicine to what Lisa had been giving out to people.

Thankfully vampires didn't get sick very easily, actually there were no recorded incidents of them getting sickness that humans could. Adrian was pretty sure he had a lot of that resistance also, he'd never been sick a day in his life with fever or colds. While his father took care of Lisa, Adrian took care of Trevor, rarely leaving his side.

The fever became worse at first, Trevor was never conscious during that time, he'd dream or seem to be awake when he thrashed around with conscious or unconscious nightmares. For the first few Adrian was able to settle Trevor's rash movements and whimpers with a cold washcloth on his forehead and talking to him gently.

When the fever came to its worst the nightmares became worse, not only did Trevor sound in pain physically but he would scream bloody murder. Adrian had no idea how to soothe such a pain, it went on and on no matter what he tried. There was only one other thing he could think of.

Adrian climbed into bed with his best friend, pulling Trevor to sit in his lap and cuddled up to his chest, he squeezed his arms around the brunette and brushed a few fingers through the sweaty brown locks. "Shh it's okay, you're alright." he whispered. His skins naturally cool temperature seemed to quell and soothe away some of the heated pain from Trevor's skin and the tight hold helped calm the nightmare itself.

He had to do that several times, once for an entire hour, before Trevor's fever broke and color started to flush through his skin again.

When the young hunter finally woke up the reunion left Adrian's heart warm and tingling and then they ended up close. It felt like the right moment, it would be so easy to just peck Trevor on the lips and tell the other teen how he felt. Adrian moved to do it but stopped immediately hearing an explosion from the front of the castle, he jumped out of bed and clenched his fists ready to defend his bedridden best friend.

That's when he met Sypha, Trevor's new friend and that girl from a few years ago that had helped them. He felt immediately jealous of her and how close the two were after such a short time, how freely they spoke to each other and exchanged touches. Even feeling so, it didn't stop him from admitting that Sypha was pretty cool.

She was young like them but very skilled at magic, she had a kindness in her eyes that most humans didn't hold in this day and age especially towards vampires or half-breeds. What he meant was, he could see why Trevor was so enamored with her so quickly but that didn't stop his jealousy from burning in his gut whenever her name was mentioned. It was a reflex, something he couldn't stop but he tried his best not to snap at either of his friends because of that feeling, neither of them deserved it.

Above his jealousy Adrian just wanted Trevor to be happy and if he had to get married one day to some girl, he'd want it to be someone just like Sypha. They'd be perfect together. Fuck he hated even thinking that, he and Trevor would be perfect together...or at least he personally thought so.

While the redhead was still in town he spent some time with them but mostly let the two have their time together. He got Trevor to himself after she left and things felt like they'd gone back to normal, but it still nagged in the back of his mind that all this time he'd likely been imagining any chemistry between them. Trevor was more attracted to Sypha than he ever could be to Adrian.

So he never mentioned anything to the other teen, he bottled everything up that the blond had been working himself up on the way home to admit out loud.

So when they were out sparring in the rain with swords and he felt Trevor get hard it was like a dam broke on his feelings, his emotions, all the want that he'd been controlling so well up to that point. It all broke and came flooding out.

Adrian pulled Trevor home, it had taken the rest of his willpower not to just pick up the younger teen and carry him to make it faster. They trudged through the castle leaving water and mud tracked behind them, their sparring weapons scattered somewhere in the hallways forgotten.

Words just kept repeating in his head, _he wants me he wants me_.

Their first kiss was them, still a bit dirty from outside but warming and washing up under the hot shower, he kissed Trevor with everything he had. Complete on auto-pilot still Adrian had no idea if his kiss was any good but he tried to match the movements Trevor was returning, it felt good even if it was very amateur.

His first taste of Trevor's blood, just a drop from a cut lip but it was warm on his tongue and completely indescribable. There was a certain sweetness to the irony taste that left him wanting more, but for the time he wanted something else even more than that. Adrian pretty much _begged_ Trevor to touch him, he needed it and after cumming he wanted to just collapse in Trevor's arms and hold onto him forever.

Once again he dragged Trevor down the halls of their home to his personal bedroom and got them into bed. The brunette tried to squirm away so Adrian caught him by the waist, cute, Trevor was all shy about being touched. He couldn't help but smile and begin to touch him, listening to Trevor come so undone from this swelled Adrian's pride, his ego, and his want.

It all felt like a dream come true, they'd kissed, touched each other, and then Trevor initiated cuddling pressing himself up to Adrian's chest as the blond covered them up to sleep. For tomorrow Adrian hoped for the best, he hoped to wake up just like this with Trevor in his arms and wish him a good morning with a kiss and watch the brunette blush heavily and probably throw an insult in his face.

Adrian fell asleep with a small smile pulled at his lips.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

Adrian woke up first feeling calm and a bit sticky but ultimately, happy. He sat up watching a few birds building a nest outside his bedroom window, Trevor sleepily snuggled up to his side still and buried under the covers.

Tough as he tried to act when awake Trevor had this adorable side to him when he let his masks and shields down. Trevor would never admit it, not even to Adrian, but the blond had a feeling underneath it all that his friend really enjoyed being held and cuddled, to be taken care of and feel like he was loved. He was always trying to act tough like he could take care of himself in any situation so that others didn't have to worry about him.

Trevor often acted like he wanted the world to be able to still turn easily even if he were to disappear one day, Adrian couldn't have that. The stupid idiot had made a big imprint on his heart and he was determined to slowly beat that into Trevor's head.

When the younger teen started to wake up it was slow, he still looked exhausted and a bit confused as he blinked sleep from his eyes and started to push himself to sit up. _Cute_. Adrian smiled, his fangs poking out, Trevor was the one person aside from his parents that never stared at them when he did smile.

Adrian brought a hand up to touch Trevor's cheek and brush his thumb over it slowly, "Good morning sleeping beauty." He leaned and kissed the other teen softly, Trevor leaned up to meet him partway.

Before he had a chance to pull away on his own Trevor pulled a complete 180 degrees, yanking back and simultaneously shoving Adrian away hard by the chest and yelling, "What the hell do you think you're doing!?" and began to rub his arm over his lips.

"Same thing we did last night, or did you forget that?" Adrian asked confused and trying to stay calm with this sudden behavior thrown at him.

"Are you kidding? I didn't like that!" the young Belmont moved himself a bit further to the side away from Adrian, "I don't know how it even-how it even happened! We need to just forget that _ever_ fucking happened, I never want to think about it again!" he cried out.

That made Adrian angry, being told that his feelings weren't reciprocated were one thing and something he could handle, this was not. He hadn't forced Trevor to do anything, he hadn't been told to stop even once or pushed away, sure the other teen had squirmed but that was from pleasure. The Belmont was fully capable of yelling at him or shoving him away enough to get away from Adrian if he'd wanted to stop, plus he'd been the one leaning into every kiss, willing touching him in the shower, cuddling up to him in bed.

"What the fuck is your problem Trevor? I will _not_ forget about what happened last night, _ever_!" he declared in a louder voice to overshadow his friend.

"Take that back! Take it back now Adrian or I'm going to get pissed!" the younger teen threatened.

"I honestly don't know what your problem is right now, everything was fine last night! Just, come here!" the blond extended his arms, maybe if he could just hug Trevor and remind the other how nice it felt when they cuddled together it would calm everything down. Instead rough hands shoved him away, one in his chest and the other at his face as Trevor jumped away from him and out of bed, shivering from his almost complete lack of clothes. "Don't touch me..."

As the other teen exited the room Adrian punched the bed and yelled, "Goddammit Trevor Belmont you are an absolute _child_!" He felt so frustrated and ran both hands through his long blond locks, pulling at them a bit, he was so angry that Adrian almost wanted to just rip out his hair all together to find any type of relief.

They had fought over the years, usually over petty things that they'd cool off and be resolved in a few days, this was very different. The boys avoided each other completely, no words were exchanged and if their eyes met it was only with glares.

While Adrian did calm down after two days, Trevor hadn't. He could go barged into the other's room and demand they talk about this, he could go to his parents and tell them everything that had been happening, but what Adrian decided on was nothing. He didn't want to be the bigger person this time, if Trevor wanted to be a dick then he was going to have to live with that until he decided to come talk about things or apologize.

Now it was just a battle of who could hold out longer without the other.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

He'd overreacted. _Fuck_ had he overreacted to this whole mess. Trevor had woken up that morning feeling tired and sore but full in a way he hadn't in a long time. It was literally his dreams come true what they'd done, but as he'd leaned in a bit for that final single kiss in the morning a panic flooded his mind.

_Belmont's marry and have children to carry on the family name and tradition._ his mind screamed.

Now, as a result, they weren't even on speaking terms. Lisa and Dracula had noticed the chill between the teens and tried to talk to him about it, probably Adrian too, but he'd refused to tell them anything other than they had an argument. Lisa was so worried she hadn't even yelled at them for leaving the house wet and muddy the other day.

Constantly his inner thoughts felt muddled and Trevor locked himself into his room almost completely for several days, he was so torn. He knew what he should do, he should grow up and find a girl to marry and have kids with. That didn't sound bad at all other than the feelings he should be saving for marriage were currently being all occupied by Adrian.

There was no point in denying what he felt for the other teen anymore, he _liked_ Adrian, he didn't dare use the other L word or there would be no turning back. There might not be even from the point they were at. Trevor wanted to be able to do all sorts of things with Adrian. Some that they already did like hang out, spar, tease each other, watch each other's backs. And all of the things they didn't like kissing, touching each other, be completely intimate and talk about things only your lover could really understand.

Torn between what he wanted and what Trevor felt he owed his family. It was too much, he felt like the weight of a million tons were crushing him. If he chose Adrian there would be no more Belmont's, they would disappear and probably be burned away by the church forgotten forever along with their knowledge of protecting people from evil monsters.

If he chose his family, he'd lose the single person that meant the most to him or at least become so estranged from him and the Tepes family that it wouldn't be the same anymore.

Things would be so much easier if he just disappeared and didn't have to feel anything anymore, it would be so much easier to lock himself away in this room forever and sleep for 100 years.

At the end of the third day of him hiding out in his room Trevor decided to do just that, he stopped leaving his room other than for quick bathroom breaks to the restroom right across every once in a while. Two days went by, Dracula and Lisa didn't think too much of it at first. Teens needed their space and they didn't hover over Trevor so they had no idea he was just living out in his room constantly, they just assumed he'd been avoiding everyone around the corners of their large castle. It wasn't that hard to do.

Every minute, every hour, of each day Trevor felt more of his worry slipping away for the time being as his mind worked overtime trying to make a decision.

The evening of the fourth day Trevor left his room, he went to the thankfully empty kitchen and had a quick meal and headed off for a quick shower and change of clothes, which he hadn't done in days so he probably smelled very rank.

Whether by chance or perhaps he had unconsciously guided himself to where he knew Adrian would be, but Trevor walked past the libraries open door and stopped seeing the lights on inside. Immobile for a long minute the teen turned inside, his bare feet almost completely silent against the floor.

He stopped inside next and the sight before him left a frog in Trevor's throat that he tried to swallow down, a tingle in his heart. Adrian was scouring the many bookshelves for something and if he noticed Trevor he paid the brunette no attention, his long hair was pulled up into a messy bun with some strands falling out, he stretched onto his toes reaching to pull out a book, his shirt pulling up and showing some mid-drift skin.

Trevor only wanted to do one thing at that time and the void in his mind that he'd been muddling in the last few days was thick enough to block out any negative thoughts and feelings coming from trying to act on it. The young hunter stepped forward towards the blond, who turned to him and frowned, book in hand.

"Trevor, come to argue?" with his free hand Adrian placed it on his hip and tilted his head a bit watching Trevor cautiously.

"No." he muttered back and stepped closer, pushing up just a bit on his toes and planting a hand onto Adrian's shoulder for leverage as this time he kissed Adrian. Gentle, chaste, testing the waters, he wouldn't blame the blond for yanking back and full on punching him, he deserved it at this point.

With no immediate response Trevor was going to pull away, but at the last moment a cool arm curled around his waist and touched his back, their kissed deepened and the shorter teen squeezed his eyes shut during.

Last time they had kissed it was hard, hurried, desperate to do things fast and get it done. This time it was slow so they could both feel each other more properly and move together in tandem. Trevor was nudged backward softly and he went willingly, letting his back press against the sturdy bookshelf and lifted both arms to curve over Adrian's shoulders and around his neck loosely.

After a few minutes Trevor broke the kiss, "M'sorry..."

"About what specifically?" Adrian asked him.

"Everything." Pulling his arms back to himself Trevor pressed the back of one hand to the middle of his face to partially cover his eyes as they grew wet and a loud sniffle came out. "I'm sorry for everything. I'm such an idiot about everything." his voice shook like it was brittle and ready to break.

"Are you alright? Shit...you wanted that right? I thought you wanted to kiss me?" worry prevalent in Adrian's tone as he lifted his hands to a less sexual spot on Trevor's arms as if to physically hold his breaking friend together.

"I don-I don't know right now. Did it um-did it make you happy that I kissed you?" A single tear escaped Trevor's eyelids and he brushed it away quickly, trying to blink rapidly to rid himself of the others and sniffle so that his nose wouldn't run.

"It doesn't matter if it made me happy. Listen, you know that I want this now, there's no going back from that. That doesn't mean you owe me _anything_ , ever. Knowing something like this would hurt you would ruin it, do you understand?" When he went unanswered Adrian jostled Trevor's arms just a little to get his attention focused, "I don't want anything that you don't want. I won't hate you for not wanting me."

"Do you mean it?" blue watery eyes stared into Adrian unblocked now, "I couldn't stand to ever lose you Adrian." It was so hard to admit it out loud, he'd thought it so many times but never voiced it. "If you weren't here, if you hated me, I don-I don't know what I'd do." All walls and strength came tumbling down then, tears flowed freely and Trevor started to wipe them away with his sleeves as fast as he sobbed them out. "You're the most important person to me, I can't lose you too."

Adrian looked at him astonished and his gold piercing eyes were wide and began to soften. "Is it okay if I hug you?" he moved closer waiting for an answer and slowly pulled Trevor into a tight embrace. "You won't lose me, I don't want to lose you either. You're also the most important to me."

All in all the crying wasn't too bad, didn't last too long, Trevor just had a lot of anxiety and emotions to work out of his system that he'd been bottling up. "Why don't we go have a cup of tea and you can tell me all the zillions of things going through your thick skull right now." Adrian smiled with teasing evident in his tone.

Trevor smiled as he pulled away, wiping his eyes dry one more time and sniffling, he nodded. Sitting at the kitchen table with completely bloodshot eyes he drank half his cup before taking in a few breaths. "I often feel like I shouldn't have been the one to survive when I was younger, it'd be so much better and easier for me if my parents or my sisters had made it. They're worth more than I ever could hope to be, but I am the one here....it rests on me to carry on the Belmont name and pass on the knowledge in our basement."

"I see." Adrian's voice was low and gentle, "I can't imagine how that must feel, I've never lost anyone like that before. That explains why you feel so torn with wanting this." he motioned between them, "It's fine but I wish I'd known sooner."

"I really should have told you sooner." Trevor agreed, "It's just...fuck it's so hard to talk about this stuff, even with you."

"Then how about this? I let you lead this where you want it to go, when you want to touch, be close, kiss, that's all up to you. And when you don't then I'll just be the same person you've always known." the blond suggested. "I'll take you any way I can for as long as you'll allow, and if one day you meet a girl you want to marry and have a family with I....I'll let you go. That's your right." It sounded like it physically hurt for Adrian to say that, but he said it honestly with all of his aching heart.

"So you'd let me just use our relationship however I please, be friends with benefits only when I want it?" That didn't sound fair, not even a little.

"Yes." Adrian said with full confidence, "We're young so I'm confident that at least for a long time, you'll choose me, if that changes I'll be prepared for it. I'll always be willing to wait for you."

Trevor's chest filled to the brim with that unspoken L word and he smiled, a truly genuine smile that he rarely gave anyone. "I'd like it right now if you kissed me."

Adrian returned the happy expression, "As you wish."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't expecting this to be the last chapter for the boy's teens but the other ideas I had didn't feel like they had enough weight to them so I scrapped them. Next chapter begins with the boy's young adulthood (probably around 19-20), it will last somewhere between 3-5 chapters before this story comes to a complete close.


	11. Part III: Adult Arc

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a lot of good and bad tension growing between Adrian and Trevor now that a few years have passed. Dracula is secluding himself and that has Lisa worried and not acting like herself.

Sometimes Adrian was sure he'd made the biggest mistake of his life making that deal with Trevor, sometimes the brunette drove him nuts with want just like when they were younger. Luckily he had a lot of self-control and ambition for Trevor to be happy, he never pushed for more than what the hunter was willing to give.

It hurt him sometimes but he knew even now that they were each 19 and in the middle of summer, it was worth it and Trevor occasionally struggled with those old decisions. Since making that deal Trevor's demeanor changed a bit in every aspect, he seemed like a man being released from prison.

Like a world had been lifted off his shoulders and he felt free of something that had been dragging him down. How could Adrian ever regret a decision that brought that on?

His goal was to eventually woo Trevor over so head over heels that those opposite thoughts didn't hurt anymore and he knew Adrian would be the right decision. That didn't mean they didn't fight or get at each other's throats, but it was usually laced with more sexual tension than before. After all they were both strong-headed men and now mostly fully grown.

After Adrian had just turned eighteen a certain type of darkness had started to spread from the north, or at least that's what Dracula told them when they noticed an increase of dark beasts wandering down towards their home and the village nearby.

As usual Lisa tended to any wounded, Dracula began locking himself away trying to figure out what exactly was happening and what methods to take to stop it and protect his wife's beloved humanity, the two men helped in their own way by protecting the area physically. They were great warriors even at their still young age and went out often patrolling together and killing vicious beasts, they were mindless creatures filled with violence so Adrian felt no guilt in killing them. Trevor seemed to hold his families blood after all and got excited with each fight, giving his all every time and having become quite the master with his whip.

After particularly tough fights usually left Trevor particularly horny, they'd made out and gotten each other off many times right after a large fight. On that note they hadn't gotten much further in that sort of relationship at least compared to the number of years that had passed.

Trevor would allow kissing most of the time, jerking each other off, very occasionally he'd let Adrian give him a hickey after drinking some blood, only once had he let Adrian give him a blowjob. The brunette much preferred to have the cock in his mouth, when he was in particularly needy moods Trevor would usually settle up to him somewhere secluded and work his way to his knees and after they'd cuddle.

One thing in particular that Trevor loved but was super embarrassed to admit, was for Adrian to finger him open, he would never ask for it and though he was normally decently confident when it came to sexual stuff now this one act left him completely timid and shy. But completely unhinged with need and want, every time Adrian tried it he expected Trevor to beg Adrian to fuck him, it never happened.

Something Trevor never failed to do when they were intimate, was cry or tear up. It had worried Adrian at first, especially the first time. He'd cupped Trevor's cheeks to brush away tears and asked, "Hey, hey are you alright?" in a tender voice, the brunette nodded.

"Sorry I know it's weird...I think I just um, get kind of overwhelmed with all of the feelings."

"Isn't that well..unpleasant?" it sounded so.

"Mn'no...I mean, a little but it's also nice. Is that weird?" Trevor had looked away and they'd talked it over just a bit more. The younger teen had promised to ever tell Adrian if it felt like too much, Adrian had a feeling that the reason Trevor didn't mind the tears was the after effect.

Since he tended to bottle things up when he got overwhelmed and cried a bit it gave him a euphoric feeling both mind and body going blank and numb.

Adrian wished he could feel that way, but the only thing that could give him that would be to have Trevor to himself. To be able to touch and kiss him whenever he wanted, to be able to finally tell his parents what their relationship was. Sometimes the frustrations became too much, one of these days he might get fed up and just break everything off. Sometimes that felt like the better option than to continuously tease himself hoping for something that would never be.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

Summer had just begun and the weather as of late was gorgeous, like the sun Trevor's mind felt light for the first time in a while and his heartfelt warm and burned with passion for two things. Fighting, and Adrian.

It may have taken him several years to finally decide what kind of life he wanted to lead. Sypha had visited in the midst of the last winter and seeing that Trevor _still_ was in turmoil over this subject she'd made a suggestion that blew the not-so-bright hunter's mind.

_"Why don't you learn all you can and when you get older you teach others your ways, then they'll teach their families, and theirs, so on. It's like extending your family tenfold as the generations go on?_

He'd never considered teaching people outside of his family the information down in his families archives, maybe he should set something up there one day and open it to the public. Protect it by living there but let people come to him for help, he could teach and enlighten others and it would spread from there.

With some of the guilt easing off of his shoulders he figured, even if the Belmont name itself didn't carry on with him their ways would and the name wouldn't just disappear. His family could forgive him for not baring a child with that and let him have his happiness, couldn't they?

Trevor had agreed with Sypha but decided to take time and really think about it, for once not to go rushing into important decisions. She'd happily agreed that in the next winter when she visited again to take Trevor in her wagon to visit his families estate, make some actual graves for them and let Trevor get everything off of his chest to them there. After that he planned to tell Adrian he'd decided, as an end of the year present that they could really be together instead of this half-assed friend with benefits situations.

Now it was just up to him to hold back. Without guilt weighing him down as much every touch between them was like an icy fire, it didn't help that in the last year Trevor had been letting Adrian feed off of him once every week or two.

The amount of blood was nothing big so it didn't affect his health but Adrian had perfected his vampiric powers, he could make Trevor feel any way he wanted while his fangs were in the human's flesh. A sharp jolt of pain and then a pleasing wave washing over every nerve leaving Trevor in a spaced out daze. Like everything about the blond, it was addicting.

One morning only a few days into the summer Trevor knew it was going to be a blazing one, he'd gone to bed warm and woken up hot and sweating, all of his bedsheets kicked off sometime in the night. In the bathroom he'd brushed his teeth and looked himself over in the mirror.

To himself he looked the same as ever, other than having lost a bit more of his baby fat with a more sculpted chin, a bit of scruff on said chin, oh and a new scar. One that was permanently placed straight vertically over his left eye he'd gotten from a battle a year and a half ago. With his Belmont luck it hadn't been deep, and it had missed his actual eye but the impact had hurt his eye a little itself. Every once in a great while if Trevor was too tired or stressed his left eye and scar would sting or the eye would see out a bit fuzzier than his right.

Scared at the moment, Adrian afterward admitted he really liked the scar, guess he liked a more rugged looking hunter with scars and scruff. Sometimes if they were laying together he'd randomly reach to brush his thumb over the scar.

In his boxers and a tank top Trevor headed out to the kitchen to get a glass of cold water and make some breakfast, Adrian as usual had beaten him there. "You look miserable." the vampire stated as he drank a cup of tea.

Scowling the brunette grabbed his glass of cool water and drank half in a few gulps, "It's too fucking hot, I don't know how you're drinking something _hot_ in blistering weather." He'd never liked the heat, the only time he tolerated it was being intimate with Adrian and even then it was easier to get through because of the vampire's cool skin.

Next he grabbed a few slices of dried jerky from the kitchen and sat down at the table eating the dried meat with big messy mouthfuls followed by big sips of his water. "Tell your father that running water and gears are great but he should invent something that cools down the castle." he groaned.

With a chuffed noise Adrian didn't blink an eye, "Tell him yourself, I'm sure he'll give you the same response as last time you complained."

"He gets too much of a kick out of trying to terrify me." resting his head in the palm of one hand Trevor finished his snack and drink remembering last time he'd made a big fuss about the castle holding too much heat.

_Dracula grinned, one that would terrify many thinking the lord vampire was planning to hunt them down for fun. Trevor knew better but the smile and glint of his fangs still left a shiver through his bones. "If the heat bothers you that much, I could always turn you into a vampire."_

It was a joke, a dark and creepy joke but nothing more. "I don't think I can handle being this hot all day long, the sun isn't even at its highest yet."

"Perhaps we should go for a swim in the river later today." Adrian suggested which perked his human up right away. "That sounds _amazing_ , what would I do without you Adrian?"

"I don't know, die probably." the blond snickered and stood up, he had on his usual clothes. Long sleeves and dress pants, looking completely unaffected by the temperatures. Trevor fake pouted sticking his bottom lip out, "You're cruel to me. You know that?"

"I do." was all the answered he received before Adrian started washing out his cup at the sink and a few other leftover dishes in there, probably Trevor's since Dracula and Lisa always did theirs together after eating.

Watching the blond push his sleeves up so they wouldn't get damp Trevor sunk out of his seat right up to the taller man's back and pressed his forehead between Adrian's shoulder blades. He could feel the coolness radiate off the other's skin even through his shirt, "Mn you're so nice and cold all of the time..."

Rolling his golden eyes Adrian turned, pressing one hand to the back of Trevor's nape of the neck and one to the brunette's forehead. Trevor sighed in euphoria and closed his eyes.

"Better?"

"So much better."

The front hand disappeared and with a slight frown Trevor opened his blue eyes just as Adrian placed a cool kiss at the upper tip of his eye scar, then down over the bottom tip. He reached forward to take two tight handfuls of Adrian's white shirt and leaned, pulling their lips together with little grace.

It was messy and quickly intoxicating for them both, with a sudden movement Trevor purposefully knicked his bottom lip with one of Adrian's fangs. By now he was quite the master of kissing the vampire without getting cut, but when he did the small drop or two of blood drove the other insane and made him rougher.

"Fuck.." Adrian muttered after getting his first taste of the coppery red liquid and breathed heavily against Trevor's lips, who was smirking quite smugly, "When you do that I just... _fuck_ I just..."

"Mhm, what're you gonna do about it?~" Trevor leaned in, pecking Adrian's lips once more with a tease. Cold fingers found their way down to his waist and hauled him up in a swift movement onto the edge of the counter, there wasn't much room so the only thing keeping Trevor from falling off was Adrian's body pressing between his legs in front of him. The back of his head had smacked against one of the cabinets and it stung for a moment but he ignored it almost completely.

Taking a fistful of long blond hair Trevor crushed their lips together again, it was a deep and slow kiss and today Adrian let him take the lead. Adrian kissed him back but was focused on getting some revenge, drawing his long fingers down Trevor's throat and chest, pushing up under the brunette's loose tanktop to tease at the sensitive skin and tough muscles underneath.

Their kiss broke early when they both heard a familiar quiet creak of Lisa's infirmary room just up the hall, the door really needed to be greased. Trevor was first to shove Adrian away, a bit rougher than he'd intended, and hopped off the counter to straighten himself up and rub his arm over his lips. He could feel the glare coming from Adrian and they both tried to look casual as the blond woman entered the room.

"Good morning you two." she greeted.

"Good morning mother."

"Mornin' Lisa."

She stopped but only for a moment, her intent eyes scanning them over. She noted the small cut on Trevor's lip and the way her son's hair was tangled on one side. Lisa opened her mouth about to say something but then stopped herself and sighed, "Vlad says that he'll not be there for dinner again tonight..."

Something had been going on with the Tepes parents lately, it all started when the dark beasts started raining further down towards the village. Dracula took long spells, a week at a time every few weeks, where he holed himself up in his room at the top of the castle. The one with his magic mirror and some of his more powerful and harmful spells, it seemed that this was weighing heavily on his wife's mind but neither boy knew how to fix it.

"Eh it's fine, I'll still sit with you at dinner!" Trevor grinned like he was being a hero. Almost stuttering Adrian added, "Of course, me too! I still want to sit down for dinner."

Though worry cluttered her gently aging face Lisa smiled with love, "Thank you boys, that's not necessary. I'm quite tired today anyway, I'm just going to reheat dinner for myself, I trust you two can feed yourselves?"

"Of course mother, we were going to head into the village anyways today. Did you want us to bring you anything back?"

"No that's fine dear, thank you though."

A bit before midday the two headed out, there was a nice cold river that flowed down the other side of the village. The children of the village usually played at the clearing but if they walked a good deal further downstream they'd be secluded and able to enjoy silence and each other's company.

They passed by the usual whorehouse, the same group of girls out front as always but older now. Still heckling to each other as they tried to draw in customers or hassle people. Today they giggled but didn't call anything to the two of them, that was surprising.

So was that one of them broke off from the group and followed them a few steps up the street. The woman with pitch black hair all done up with a fancy pin, her eyes a deep brown and a red lipstick that flattered her skin tone. She caught Adrian's arm gently and blushed genuinely when he turned to look at her with his icy golden stare.

"Your name is Alucard right?" as the village knew him as. Adrian had commented once that other than his own mother that Trevor was the only human to ever refer to him by his real name.

"It is." he didn't deny, "I'm not interested in paying for sex-"

"No no I just um, I thought you were very handsome. I wanted to offer you a date or...if you'd prefer I'd give you a free appointment." she started to smile softly. Adrian's cheeks were dusted pink, he was used to the girls out front offering to give him appointments but never for free, never go on dates like they were romantically interested in him. "I-" before he could open his mouth to gently reject her his arm was yanked roughly.

"No thanks lady, this guy is too busy for love!" Trevor snapped and yanked him again away from her and back up the street. "Oh um...okay, see you around!" she called before retreating.

"Trevor slow down." Adrian blinked as they walked briskly, the grip on his wrist tight and almost digging into his tough skin. "Why are you acting all jealous? I wasn't going to take her up on the offer."

"I'm not jealous!" Hiding his eyes behind some of his hair Trevor didn't slow down, he was jealous dammit. It wasn't official but Adrian was his, he wasn't allowed to go out on dates or fuck other people on his watch. Okay maybe he didn't even have permission to fuck Trevor but still!

When they got to a nice spot on the river far from any prying eyes Trevor undressed quickly, Adrian did more slowly and folded his shirt neatly and set it somewhere not too dirty. Still filled with envious thoughts Trevor stepped over and grabbed Adrian's black belt, he pulled it out of the loops with a few tugs, "The sooner you get in the water the sooner I can um..." his voice was low and lustful, "I want to...you know."

"No, I don't know." the blond ran his thumb over the scabbed cut on Trevor's bottom lip, "You'll have to spell it out for me."

"I want to suck your dick dammit." Trevor forced out.

Not even a few minutes later they were settled in the water, Adrian was leaning on the edge of the bank and Trevor on his knees before him, bobbing his head expertly along Adrian's hard cock. The cold river water washing away the painful heat as it ran from Trevor's lower back and down as he worked his throat, making soft sucking noises and fully enjoying himself.

"A bit slower Trevor." Adrian groaned, sifting his fingers through the brown hair, "I know you like having cock in your mouth but have some patience."

Trevor tried to force away the blush creeping on his cheeks but couldn't, he didn't stop but did try to slow down. He did like this, the taste wasn't too wonderful but the act itself took skill and he knew just what Adrian liked. A few sucks here, a well-placed lick, even the occasional nibble on the right spot drove the vampire insane and grew harder and twitched in his hand or mouth. He could show the blond that even without actual sex he knew just what Adrian liked, he wasn't something to be thrown away and if Adrian could just wait a little longer...he'd get exactly what he wanted.

It didn't feel like enough, none of this felt like enough when he remembered that girl coming onto Adrian. Pulling back Trevor swallowed his mouthful of saliva and what precum had gathered before mustering up some courage and personal strength. "Adrian...put your fingers in me." His first time actually asking for it, that should please the vampire right?

Adrian moved him to kneel over the riverbank, his legs still in the water, knees pressed irritably into the sand and a few rocks that made him shift until he was comfortable. As the vampire fingered him open Trevor clenched his eyes tight and gripped his hands into the long grass, "Shit...shit! Don't stop, don't, it feels good!" he moaned out heavily. The hunter pulled his eyes open and reached back, trying to get his hand on Adrian's erection to give it some attention but froze and gasped when suddenly both fingers that had been filling him were gone.

"Adrian?" he questioned and glanced behind him. "Oof!" he grunted when the blond's weight was then over his back, skin pressed to skin and Adrian placed a kiss on his bare shoulder then dragged his fangs over the skin, not piercing it or drawing any blood. "You surprised me." Trevor smiled, "What are you doing?"

"Please...please, can I?" the husky voice whispered in his ear. A hand pulled Trevor's thighs to spread just a smidge further apart, then something thick, hot, and familiar rubbed over the middle of his ass making the younger man suck in a hard breath and his mouth want to water out of want. His hands gripped harder into the grass, tearing out many small strands as his fists clenched.

God did he want to say yes, it would be so easy to just nod his head and let Adrian fuck him over the river's edge. They would both love it, everyone would be happy. But for once his resolve stayed firm and Trevor shook his head, "I can't...m'sorry."

Adrian shoved himself up and sat down into the shallow water, probably to ease away his painful erection by the glare in his eyes, and washed his hands-free of what they'd been doing. "God fucking dammit Trevor I can't keep doing this! I feel like you're purposefully toying with me all of the time now!"

More slowly Trevor retreated from the grass and into the water, his own erection having deflated hearing his friend's voice. "I'm sorry, I'm not trying to make things hard on you. You made the agreement, you said I could have as long to think as I wanted."

"Well it was a stupid fucking agreement I made when I was sixteen!" the other yelled, he was really yelling, Adrian was pissed and full of frustration. "I just can't, I can't do this anymore! You've had so much time to think and obviously I'm not what you're looking for or you'd have picked me by now!" The blond shot up and out of the water, pulling on his clothes without drying.

"Ah, wait-Adrian stop!" Trevor tried to follow but stopped dead in his tracks when a hateful look scared and stuck him where he stood, midstep.

"Trevor Belmont, don't you dare follow me right now!" the other warned in a threatening voice. "From now on, we're friends. Nothing more. I'll see you later." then he disappeared, using his inhuman speed to get away from this conversation as fast as he could.

With shaking hands Trevor sunk back down into the river, knees pulled up and his fingers digging at his hair as he watched the water. "Shit...shit...shit! I should've just-! Fuck!" It had been several years since anxiety had reared its ugly head so suddenly and harshly and it was his own fault.

He'd hurt Adrian, the person he cared about most...the person he loved. He'd hurt him, not someone else, him.

They were friends, how could they ever go back to being friends after all they'd done? That meant no more touching, no kissing, no cuddling. Trevor thought about all of those touches he craved that Adrian always gave him, and not he'd have nothing to feed that want. No more cool hands through his hair, or touches over his scar, they wouldn't be sharing a bed ever again either.

Angry tears built up in his eyes but this time Trevor didn't let them fall, he didn't deserve to cry when Adrian was the one hurting from all of this.

He was so fucking selfish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Even though they're adults doesn't mean they handle things any less childishly huh? 
> 
> *Spoiler for Next Chapter*  
> Next chapter the boys are actually going to get together, but just because their relationship is getting solved doesn't mean their life is together.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An overly sweet and loving chapter, wrapped with a bow at the end with the boys spending quality time with Lisa.

This time no one was here to bail Trevor out of his mistake, Lisa and Dracula had problems of their own going on they didn't need the extra weight of issues, and Sypha wasn't due to visit for more than half a year.

A few long days passed since their fight in the river and each one was more miserable for the Belmont. Not only was the heat continuous but Adrian was acting off, he had this fake mask of happiness on that Trevor recognized. He did that often enough, he knew fake smiles when he saw them, and fake friendliness that Adrian dishes out. Things between them were bad even though the vampire had said they were just reverting to being friends, it was worse than that, it felt worse than when he'd first come to live here and they were constantly at each other's throats.

Nowadays the two older teens were more or less responsible for their own messes like dishes and washing their clothes, but Trevor found himself reverting to an old habit of helping Lisa with a pile of laundry like he used to when he'd been hunting for motherly affection.

Her eyes were foggy with things on her mind but that didn't stop her mother senses from tingling as they washed clothes together. "What's on your mind dear?"

Trevor's head perking up he sighed, "I can't hide anything from you, can I?"

"You're not very good at it." she teased, "I'm here to listen if you need me. You know that."

He did, Lisa had never let him down when it came to being his mother, and though it was odd Dracula was quite the good father figure he had to mentally add. "I know...that you'd still love me but if I tell you I feel like you're going to be really upset." he adverted his blue eyes away from her.

"Must be pretty serious then, does this have anything to do with you being in a relationship with Adrian?" the sentence, said gently, still cut through the entire room and left Trevor in complete shock.

"You know? Does Dracula know?" Trevor found himself worrying out loud.

With a more serious tone the blond woman shook her head, "I don't think he knows, I haven't told him but I noticed a while ago. You two aren't that sneaky especially with how much time you spend together instead of seeking anyone else." Lisa started to continue her washing but a bit slower, her face solemn but not upset.

"Shit..." Trevor muttered under his breath, "You must think I'm disgusting."

"I think no such thing Trevor." Lisa actually snapped, "If you've forgotten my husband is Lord Dracula, do you think I'm in any position to be judging what true love is? I've seen you grow up with Adrian, you two are head over heels for each other and have been for a while. It's a bit adorable, especially when you two try to hide it from me."

"So...you're not forbidding it then?"

"No dear, not at all. I'm guessing you two had a fight or something, as usual, my suggestion would be to sit down and have a real talk about your feelings. See where things are going, decide if you really want to be together or not and then stop all of this hiding around, that sort of stuff isn't good for relationships." she said full of advice that Trevor took to heart seriously.

"I'm not sure what Vlad's feelings would be on it but when I get a chance I'll try to bring it up gently to him. He and I were hoping for grandchildren but I'm sure he would agree that we want you two happy above all else."

With a hard swallow the teen nodded, "Tha...Thanks Lisa. I um, I love you." he rubbed a hand behind his neck a bit embarrassed.

"I love you too dear, now get washing the laundry isn't just going to clean itself."

\\\\\///\\\\\///

Trevor didn't jump head first into blurting out his feelings to Adrian, he wanted to let his vampire friend settle. For several days the already chilly vampire gave him quite the cold shoulder even if there were a lot of fake smiles hiding irritation and anger behind them and they sat at dinner with Lisa a few times to please her.

She'd been a good sport not saying anything but gave Trevor little looks now and then that he could tell meant _get on with i_ t.

Trevor was the worst at expressing his feelings, everyone in the household knew that. It was the reason why he tended to bottle things up and let all of his emotions explode with anger or tears when it became too much instead of healthily talking them out like an adult. This wasn't something he could go up to Adrian and punch him while saying, or start sobbing, and be expected to be taken seriously.

After the first few days Adrian's frigid attitude started to melt, it was hard to notice but Trevor had known him a long time, he could tell. That night he stayed up entirely writing in the old notebook Dracula had given him when he was twelve. It was filled with pages of old and messily drawn maps of the castle floors and rooms. Places he'd long since memorized and could easily call home.

The Belmont filled page after page scribbling in and then crossing out love notes, his feelings, even going as far as to draw little hearts in some places. It looked like what someone would expect a young lovesick girls diary to look like with doodles and love notes, he wasn't embarrassed.

Love was a wonderful and easily addicting feeling, one that made him feel safe and cared for but also sparked his want to protect above anything else. It helped numb the remaining doubts in his mind that once in a while bothered Trevor about what had happened to his family.

Even with all of his writing and thinking the Belmont couldn't think of the right words, he stayed awake the next day not doing much. Trevor tried to read some romance novels but found them too unrealistic and not much help along with his attention span not keeping, he tried to eat but the nerves made him feel a bit sick after just a few bites. Soon it was early evening and he went to bed early and woke up restlessly during the middle of the night when it was darkest out, tossing and turning Trevor knew he wasn't going to be sleeping anytime soon.

The young hunter got a glass of water, took a very quick shower and then started to take a stroll around the castle. It used to be so huge and intimidating, it still was, but there was a comfort in these walls being familiar and something about them reminded Trevor of his old family estate. He remembered it being huge but that might have been due to how small he'd been back then.

Trevor walked past everyone's bedrooms and stopped for a brief moment, Adrian's door was open and the room empty which meant he was roaming the halls somewhere also. Casually he walked passed the training room, empty, kitchen was empty, library was empty, so none of their usual places to spend time. He ascended floor after floor keeping his eyes and ears open but finding no Adrian, getting high enough on the main staircase Trevor remembered that up this way was a single balcony perfect for overlooking nearby lands on.

As he approached Trevor peeked his head around the corner, sure enough there Adrian was laying on the stone of the balcony and looking up at the stars in his nightshirt and shorts. Trevor was still in his own sleepwear and thankfully for once it was warm so being outside wouldn't freeze him as he walked out to join the blond. "Hey." he greeted stretching his arms and yawning before flopping himself down onto the hard ground next to Adrian, making sure their arms were pressed together.

Groaning the blond looked away from him, "What do you want Trevor? I was enjoying the quiet."

"Come on don't act like that, I couldn't sleep. Maybe you could refresh me on some of the constellations, look there's uh...that crab one right?" he lifted a hand to point out the stars.

"Cancer." Adrian corrected and held back another sigh, "You're close, it's this one-" after drawing the right stars he let his hand fall back down. Trevor did the same but purposefully let his hand touch down over Adrian's, he softly curled his fingers around the vampires.

"Trevor what are you-?"

Still holding their hands together Trevor sat up on his elbows to look Adrian in the face so the other could tell how serious he was. "Hold on, don't finish that. Just, just listen to me please. I..." feeling his throat closing up and becoming dry the Belmont swallowed thickly, "I love you."

Adrian pushed himself to sit up and pressed his back against the wall of the balcony, "That isn't funny Trevor.." his voice held no bark or bite, wanting to believe what Trevor was saying but not quite able to.

"I mean it!" the brunette scooted himself closer after sitting up himself, "I've been wanting to tell you but I'm complete shit at this stuff. I _love_ you Adrian." In his last ditch effort Trevor pushed himself into Adrian's lap and straddled his waist, touched the other man's shoulders and pressed their foreheads together before kissing the blond.

It was brief but sweet and with half-lidded blue eyes he said again, "I love you. More than anything, and I've been choosing you for a long time but I never told you. Which, which isn't fair to you and I realize that now, it's my fault and I'm sorry and you're not saying anything and it's freaking me out!" his voice sped up as he went on and became slightly higher pitched and panicked as Adrian continued to just stare at him with slow blinking golden eyes.

"Tell me again."

"Oh." Trevor started to smile lightly, "I love you Adrian." his eyes filled with that love and his heart felt like it was ready to burst. Trevor wasn't sure who moved first but then they were kissing, still slowly but more heated than before and enough that it was making his head foggy. He had to take handfuls of Adrian's nightshirt to keep any grip on reality as their tongues slowly wrestled and twisted, the two men sharing whatever breath they could muster.

His night tank top was pulled up and over his head and Trevor was glad to see it gone, an arm wrapped around his waist and pulled them closer chest to chest. "You're probably thirsty yeah?"

"I'm always hungry for you, it can't be helped or sated." Adrian leaned and planted a few butterfly kisses over Trevor's shoulder where he usually took a small meal from, there were several fang scars right in the same area long since healed. The drag of the sharp fangs over his skin made Trevor shiver and press himself tighter to the vampire, leaning his forehead to the other's shoulder, "Go ahead...I want you to."

"You're sure..? I know I've been pushy about all of this stuff, and forcing your hand wasn't my intention-"

"Trust me, it's fine." Trevor said in such glowing tone that Adrian hadn't heard before, like a couple so happy out on their honeymoon.

There was a sharp prick that made Trevor give out a tiny whimpered noise from the pain when he was pierced but it faded quickly into numbness and then into an intense pleasure he could feel stirring in his pants. Leaning his head forward onto Adrian's shoulder Trevor let the blissful and cold heat fill his veins.

The puncture hadn't been deep so by the time Adrian licked up most of the blood the small wounds had started clotting up, the two pulled back just enough to look at each other. Adrian was licking his lips and wiping his chin with his hand but was still covered in some drying blood and avoided eye contact. "Apologies...I'm sure this isn't a big turn on..."

Coming down from his momentary high Trevor still had that ever so soft smile on his face, touching Adrian's cheeks he kissed his vampire and flicked his tongue over the other's lips to get a taste of his own blood. "What you are doesn't disgust or bother me, don't ever forget that." It was the one thing Adrian was shyer about when they were intimate, he always feared Trevor rejecting his vampire half or accidentally hurting the brunette. Usually Trevor just urged him on but this was his first time actually comforting Adrian about it, he should have done it sooner.

"I like it when you bite me." blue eyes filling with a great lust he placed a few kisses down Adrian's neck and left a small bite of his own at the base, all the while his hands pulling open the blonds buttoned nightshirt to push off his shoulders. "I like _everything_ you do to me, it's so addicting I can't believe I've held out this long."

Golden eyes watched him for a long moment before smiling back at him, "I think we should continue this somewhere more comfortable for you."

"For me?" Trevor groaned, "Come on I'm fine, I want you here, right now." he urged and pushed himself closer, grinding his half erection into Adrian's to try and get what he wanted.

"Perhaps another time, but for the first I'd like to take you properly in a bed." With a burst of his vampiric strength Adrian stood while subsequently lifting Trevor over one of his shoulders securely and leaving their discarded shirts where they lay as he started heading down to his room.

Suddenly the two young men were each remembering back when they were young and had run away, Adrian lifting Trevor to carry him like a princess even at that age. While the blond just smiled at the memory the slightly younger man let himself be carried but whined like he always did, "I'm not a girl Adrian."

"I only treat you the way I think you secretly enjoy." the blond teased and chuckled, lifting the hand he wasn't using to hold onto Trevor to touch the carried man's leg and slid up squeezing an asscheek playfully. "Ah hey I'll kick you if you keep that up!"

It didn't take long until they were enclosed in Adrian's room and Trevor was dumped out onto a big soft bed and a half-vampire undressing them before softly pinning his wrists to the bed and kissing him silly. "Ah!" Trevor moaned and spread his legs a little further apart so that Adrian could fit between them better.

Adrian moved only for a split second to grab something from his nightstand, a small bottle of oil he used when he needed to refill a lantern or two. They wasted no time and within the next ten minutes Adrian had Trevor clenching his hands desperately into the bedsheets as he was fingered deeply, oil slicking the way and soft noises escaping his lips. "Ah....h-hah...shit!"

When he was left empty Trevor half sat up and reached to try and catch Adrian's wrist, "No don't stop, I was getting close!" Instead his own wrist was taken by a cold hand and even colder lips crushing against his own to push him forcibly back laying on the bed and his mouth ravaged with need. "So greedy~" Trevor could feel fangs smiling against his lips then Adrian's familiar body pressing close to his, "Are you ready?"

Adrian's hot and aching need was pressed to his thigh for the moment but shifting his hips with better placement Trevor nodded, he felt at a loss for words. All he knew was that he wanted it, he wanted Adrian so badly he could cry for it. He nodded again with more vigor this time, finding his voice if only for a moment he choked out barely able to form the words, "Please Adrian I need you...I need you to fuck me!"

"Trevor." the blond scolded, "It's not fucking, we're making love." Flushed and in the moment Trevor didn't argue but at the moment he thought, what was even the difference. It was essentially the same exact thing, one person shoved their dick inside of someone else and got them both off, it was fucking, the only difference was that they loved each other.

His legs were pulled up slightly then Trevor felt Adrian's oiled and raging hard cock press at his entrance, as the head slid in past the first rings of muscles Trevor instinctively went stiff and reached up to grab onto Adrian's back for leverage. "Ow-fuck!" Adrian stopped to let Trevor settle back down and loosen up before he continued, listening for any signs that he really needed to stop and watching Trevor like a hawk for signs of distress.

It was slow and agonizing for them both but finally Adrian sunk in all the way bottoming out and they both let out big breathes they'd each been holding in, "Are you alright?" the older man brushed a few strands of hair from Trevor's face.

The brunette nodded quickly, "F-Fine, stings but m'fine." It wasn't as painful as he had expected thankfully but it took a bit to get adjusted to something so hot and big suddenly intruding into his body. Cool kisses pressed along his chin and blond hairs tickled Trevor's neck and shoulders, "You're a bit of a masochist...as I expected." the vampire muttered.

"H-How so?"

"Because _this_ -" Adrian took a handful of Trevor's cock and started to slowly pump it, "Hasn't flagged even a little, in fact I think you're harder now than before."

"I can't help it Adrian!" Trevor cried out and sucked in a hard breath, "Like I said yo-you drive me crazy! I'd let you do anything to me, bite me, pin me down, split me open...Because I've never felt this way before about anything or anyone but you."

They exchanged a long kiss before Adrian guided them to lay back together, his cooler body pressed tight against Trevor's and his hands once again pinning the other's wrists loosely to the bed as they began to experiment with movements. Adrian started a messy rhythm of shallow thrusts that reminded Trevor that this was Adrian's first time as well.

As they picked up their pace, rocking together into the bed and making it squeak, Adrian's hands slid up from Trevor's wrists to intertwine his fingers with his lovers. "You feel so good, you're squeezing me so tight." he whispered into Trevor's ear only to be rewarded with a hot blush spreading all over Trevor's face. "Shu-Shut up." the brunette grunted back and then he remembered why he'd had his mouth closed in the first place when a lewd and high pitched moan escaped his lips.

Once the first one came out he couldn't stop even more of them, Adrian took that as a sign to move faster but was still just as gentle and careful as before. "Ah, gn-ah _fuck Adrian_!" Slipping one hand from the vampire's grip Trevor wrapped it around the other's neck to kiss him, it was open mouthed and a complete mess with them knocking their teeth together a few times, but that didn't stop them.

Trevor's knees and legs squeezed around Adrian's hips wherever they could find purchase and before Trevor could even think the cold fire building in his stomach was ready to burst. "Ah, ah I'm gonna-I'm gonna!" Trevor couldn't finish, he didn't need to or have time to touch himself before he came, a hot sticky mess getting all over their stomachs as pleasure rippled through him, much different than the kind that came with Adrian drinking from him.

That always left Trevor with a blank mind and body, this orgasmic feeling left Trevor shivering from head to toe, tears dripping freely down his cheeks and eyes clenched shut. He heard Adrian getting desperate, thrusting a bit rougher and grunting before Trevor felt cum flood his insides and everything stop. It felt like he could think and feel with a clear mind, Trevor loved Adrian so much and the way he was touched and kissed always made him feel loved in return. That's what made him cry at times like these, he felt Adrian pouring love into every touch and movement and it was absolutely overwhelming enough to make him cry a few tears.

The two men panted together, sweat dripping down their skin. When Trevor peeled his eyes open he saw Adrian looking down at him softly, they met with a mutual and tired kiss that didn't last long as Adrian pulled out as gently as he could, leaving a trailing white mess as he did.

Laying down on his back Adrian helped to pull Trevor half onto his chest and held him close as the waves of their orgasms dispersed. "You okay Trev?" he asked sweetly and used his thumb to brush away a few tears, worried when he heard several sniffles from the brunette.

Trevor gave a quick nod and sniffled once more, "M'just so happy, I can't wait to do it again."

The vampire couldn't help but laugh, deep and heartily, "You haven't even stopped shivering yet." At least the blond knew he'd done something right if Trevor wanted to do it again so soon.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

Neither of them remembered falling asleep but they woke up almost in tandem the next morning and just cuddled. Trevor using Adrian's chest as a pillow as the vampire ran his fingertips ghosting over his shoulder. Trevor on the other hand was busy playing with a few strands of Adrian's long locks, twirling them in his fingers before letting them loose and repeating.

"I love you." Trevor said for the third time that morning softly, as if to make up for all of the times he could have been saying it instead of being stubborn.

"I..." Adrian started then stopped, "I'm scared to say it. Life has a funny way of tearing things apart when people get too happy...I want to say it just-"

"No I get it." Trevor smiled, "You don't have to say it Adrian, you've been saying it to me for years with how you act and treat me. I don't need the words to know it." He understood that fear too well, something losing his family had taught him, but now Trevor wanted to try something different. He wanted to not dwell on the past like that, but if not saying those words made Adrian feel safer then who was he to mind?

"Thanks Trev." Adrian said lovingly and kissed Trevor's forehead, "Maybe not how it happened but...I feel lucky that you fell into my life."

They just lay together for a long time enjoying each other's presence but as the day continued on their stomachs growled, "Hm...I'm hungry." Trevor broke the silence, "Oh!" he sat up suddenly and grinned, "We should make dinner tonight for Lisa, she's been so down lately because of your dad being weird. I think that would cheer her up!"

"I like that idea." the vampire agreed as they both climbed out of bed to go share a shower. They washed each other's hair and Adrian helped to clean out the...well the mess he'd made inside of Trevor the previous night without being able to control himself. The two men shared sweet kisses constantly, trying to make up for lost time and acting completely lovesick and disgustingly lovey-dovey, even holding hands as they walked down to the kitchen that morning.

Neither of them tried to hide it, not that it mattered, Lisa was off somewhere and Dracula still stowed away in his special room with no signs of leaving. They spent the entire day together, not straying from each other's side for more than a moment or two until dinner time started approaching.

They'd decided together to make chicken with some steamed vegetables, Adrian was chopping up veggies while Trevor plucked the chicken. "Hey Adrian-" he called, "Yeah Trev-ah!" the blond cried out when a plume of feathers was thrown into his face, swatting them away he glared at Trevor who was holding his stomach and laughing. "You screamed, I don't think I've ever heard you scream before!"

"Why you little-!" Grabbing a handful of flour they'd had on the side to bread the chicken with Adrian shoved it into Trevor's face making the brunette cough but grin devilishly. "Oh you're on!"

Like they always had they fought, this time their weapons were made of flower and a poor dead chickens feathers, the air and their hair filled with both before Adrian grabbed Trevor by his upper arms. The brunette still grinning and laughing, having a great time with this and not even caring if he was winning or not. "You piss me off, you know that?" Adrian muttered before pulling his lover in for a sweet kiss.

Across the room someone cleared their throat, Adrian yanked back with a prominent redness to his usually pale cheeks. "Mother! I uh-!"

Lisa was standing in the doorway with a hand covering her mouth as she tried to hold back a giggle that shook her shoulders. "I thought you two were having a serious fight, I'm sorry to have intruded." She'd walked in to find both of her boys, and her kitchen, covered in feathers, flour, some knocked over vegetables, and the boys kissing. It was beyond adorable.

"I'm glad to see you two talked things out, no need to be embarrassed Adrian dear." stepping into the kitchen further she looked around, "What in the world were you two trying to make, chicken?"

"Hah yeah, actually..." Trevor smiled nervously but still happy, "We were trying to make you dinner and got sort of distracted."

"Make _me_ dinner?" Lisa touched over her chest, "You just decided all of a sudden?"

"Well you've been so sad lately." Adrian butted in but didn't mention why, "We were trying to cheer you up."

Lisa's eyes gleamed and she looked so touched that she could almost cry, "Oh...what did I do to deserve you boys?" Not minding the mess the woman approached and opened her arms, gathering Trevor in one and Adrian in the other for a hug but having to tip herself up on her toes to reach their grown height. "I love you boys so much." She pulled back then and wiped away some flower that had gotten on her dress.

"Let's make dinner together, I'll show you two how to make it taste really amazing."

With Lisa watching over them the two men actually got dinner finished and done well, even if Trevor had been constantly antagonizing Adrian trying to make him act out around his mother. All three of them laughed and talked, had a great time, it made Lisa feel at home again and much less lonely than she had in some time. When they sat down to eat finally, all three messy from cooking, Trevor couldn't keep his mouth shut.

"Do either of you have any idea what he's doing up there? I feel like I haven't seen him in a year."

Lisa's gaze saddened but she shook her head, "He never keeps things from me but this he won't say a word...it must be serious so I'm trying not to be upset but..." her voice drifted off, Adrian reached and touched her arm for comfort. "It'll be okay mother, I'm sure this will pass."

"Yeah!" Trevor said with enthusiasm, "And if you ever need anything you can always ask us!" Both of the men would move heaven or earth for Lisa if she asked it of them in an instant. Trevor would even be willing to kick in that room and yell at Lord Dracula himself if it got to that point.

"Thank you boys...oh, I suppose you aren't boys anymore are you? You both grew up so fast right in front of my eyes." She missed it a bit, the way Adrian would sit in with her and learn about medicine and ask her questions on how to properly mix tinctures. Or the way Trevor used to follow her around like a baby chick and help her with laundry or chores and looking for her affection, beaming whenever she patted his head or praised him.

They'd grown into fine young men, strong and mature-at least when they needed to be, and oh so loving not only to each other but the whole family.

"Maybe I would like it if we started to eat dinner together regularly again, I've missed it." It wouldn't be the same without her husband but she felt a hole in her heart that used to be filled with their family time and she needed that back again. "Tomorrow I'll show you how to make some really good fish if you two could manage to go out and catch me some?"

Neither of them were particularly patient for fishing but if they got bored they could always fool around until something nibbled on their fishing poles. "I bet I can catch the bigger fish." Trevor challenged.

"We'll see about that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry this took so long, I struggle with writing smut a lot of the time and that's what tangled me up for the longest time. Next chapter will bring a little bit of plot, we're going to find out what Lord Dracula is hiding from his family.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrian is spirited away by a mysterious voice while out fishing, leaving Dracula the only one with some answers to help Lisa and Trevor understand just what the hell is going on. No one's fate is certain.

The night following dinner they just cuddled and in the morning Trevor woke up being the little spoon, Adrian was drawing lazy patterns against his bare back and tickling over his shoulder blades. "Mn..." the brunette stretched and rubbed his eyes.

"Good morning." the vampire said softly and kissed the back of his head before going back to touching his back. " 'Morning...what're you doing?" Trevor shivered as a particular touch tickled but he didn't make any movements to stop it.

"Just thinking, you remind me of an angel."

That woke Trevor up, he wanted to scoff and make some comment to cover up his pure embarrassment but held himself and didn't, simply asking, "Why is that?"

Hearing the tone Trevor was using Adrian decided to school his lover but also compliment him at the same time. "Biblical angels were beautiful, but they were also strong and merciless warriors. That's how I think of you." Pulling the Belmont closer Adrian cuddled up to his back again and felt Trevor's hands curl over his own.

"I think that suits you more than me." came an almost inaudible voice as Trevor pulled away, managing only a small noise of discontent Adrian was ready to interject but stopped as his lover rolled over to straddle him, their lips met in a soft kiss.

"Hmm.." the blond made a satisfied noise, pressing up into the kiss to deepen it slightly as their lips moved in rhythm together, his hands starting at Trevor's elbows and slowly feeling their way up the warm skin. "Fish bite best in the morning, we should probably get going." there was no urgency in his voice and Trevor scoffed, yeah right like Adrian actually wanted to give up having sex to go boring ol'fishing.

"I've already caught what I want, the small fish can wait-" Trevor muttered before kissing Adrian again this time with more desperation and his hands beginning to wander.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

Another shower later the two young men were lugging their fishing rods and equipment out to their nice little secluded area of the river, a deeper area than where they usually swam. Adrian was modest as usual and kept pulling at his shirt to try and hide the three new hickies peeking out around his collarbone and shoulder, Trevor did no such thing. He wore the several love marks like a medal of honor.

The day was still several hours from midday but the sun was high enough that the grass was finally beginning to feel warm, waiting and trying to be patient the two men sat shoulder to shoulder with their hands held between them in the grass.

Trevor wagged his right foot back and forth slowly and bounced his leg from time to time having a hard time keeping his boredom at bay. "You look like you're thinking, what's up?" he asked seeing a faraway glance in his partner's golden eyes.

"Just pondering...it's been quite a while since we went anywhere, us or the castle. Our family has been in this village how many years now, five or six years? And it feels like it hasn't changed much at all." Adrian explained.

"What's so wrong with that?"

"You're content with that then? I suppose I just feel restless, going traveling with my father that once was enjoyable in a way, seeing the world and meeting interesting people." He hadn't appreciated it as much back then but now being older and much wiser Adrian wished to do something like that again.

Squeezing his hand around Adrian's the brunette frowned, "You want to go off with your father for months on end again?" That time wasn't a great memory for Trevor, other than meeting Sypha.

"Tch." the vampire smirked making Trevor look away with a small glare, "Not with him, with you, idiot."

" _Oh_." Trevor perked up then, of course, why hadn't he thought of that? "I like being with you but...do we really have to go traveling, do you need to that badly?"

Breaking their hands apart Adrian pulled Trevor close, arm around his shoulders instead and leaning his forehead to Trevor's temple, "I know you're comfortable here, and I always push you into things...all I ask is that you think about it. We haven't traveled together since we were twelve, if you can even count that, I'd like to see the world with you."

Traveling didn't sound that bad, it would probably be a lot of fun just being Adrian and him. Still even at nineteen Trevor had some abandonment and attachment issues, maybe this would be really good for him, letting Adrian push him usually was for the best. Usually.

The castle, Lisa, Dracula, they would all still be here whenever they decided to return. "I'll think about it." he promised. Blue eyes perked up when one of their poles, both which were propped standing up between some sturdy rocks, began to tug, "Oh look!"

Both rushed forward, each grabbing the pole at different places and with the intensity forced upon it the entire rod snapped in half, the line breaking and disappearing into the water before their eyes. Blinking a few times at the water, then at Adrian the brunette started to laugh. Adrian smiled and let a tiny throated chuckle as well.

"Your fault." Trevor bemused.

"It was your pole." Adrian threw back and dropped his half of the rod onto the ground without thought.

"Exactly, you broke it with your vampire strength!" Trevor argued, still a hint of laughing in his tone as they playfully argued.

"I'll break _you_ with my vampire strength!" Adrian reached and gently held onto Trevor's arms and pushed him back into the nearest tree to crowd him in, both still smiling like the lovesick idiots they were. "Oooh I'd like that."

Just as life continued to feel right, it decided to shit in the two men's dinner. Adrian pulled back in an instant, hand on his sword, "Do you feel that?"

"No but I heard it." Trevor had taken his trusty whip off of his belt and already stood in a fighting stance, "Can you feel how many?"

"Not exactly, these ones are hard to sense just like the ones that have been scrounging up north." Demons and monsters had been leaking down south towards their home and the village but they had never made it this far before, not even close, so that a group of demons suddenly were surrounding just them on purpose seemed...out of the ordinary, even for demons.

"Many smaller ones, a few large ones, be careful." the blond warned as they both turned, their backs to each other to keep an eye out around them. Trevor nodded, "You too, be careful and don't be reckless."

Adrian had to roll his eyes, he should be telling Trevor that, not the other way around.

Demons began to swarm them, ranging from small to human size and all shapes and types, all pitch black and wavery like they could disappear into the shadows at any moments notice. Attacking them, while effective, felt like cutting air and left no satisfaction when they died by turning into a cloud of smoke and dissipating. There was no blood, but on weapons they left behind a sticky black slime that soon coated the ground in droplets as one after a dozen were killed.

"There's so fucking many of them!" Trevor cried as he slashed through the head of another one and ducked from a behind attack then turned to drive one of his small daggers through the creatures head. Black liquid spurted everywhere, staining the Belmont's clothes, face, and hair as they fought. Trevor had a single scratch down his arm leaking slow blood and a demon had just barely managed to draw barely a scrape of blood from Adrian's leg while he was busy fighting another creature.

Adrian's clothes were also speckled with the slime but miraculously his face and hair were clean of it, the sight almost made Trevor roll his eyes.

"Just don't stop or they'll overwhelm us!"

Fighting felt like an eternity but the men were getting somewhere, the smaller ones were almost depleted but suddenly all backed off, content with surrounding the two in a heavy circle. "Adrian..." Trevor swallowed hard, "You said there were a few bigger ones...didn't you?"

"Yes, seems we're about to finally meet them."

Like the other demons, two shadowy figures crawled forward. They looked vaguely human-esque but still like airy clouds of dark energy. Each resonated with an echoing female laugh before each creature started to change and take a more finalized form.

"Are they...?" Adrian muttered, Trevor squinted his eyes and growled, "Those sons of bitches!"

Both shadows took on different forms, one as a dark Adrian, and one as Trevor. Looking much like their real-life counterparts and standing to oppose the opposites. Adrian vs the dark Trevor, and Trevor vs the dark Adrian they were faced.

"They just look like us right? Not a big deal." Trevor was first to attack, wasting no time and lunging forward with his whip slashing the Adrian look alike right down the chest with no mercy.

"Gah!" the shadow stumbled back and held its chest, but so did the real Adrian as he cried out and held a now bleeding wound down the middle of his chest. "Adrian!" Trevor gasped and turned his attention away from his opponent, the wound was from his whip even if it had been aimed at the monster. "So this is the kind of game we're playing, sending the small ones in to gather a bit of blood to create shit-copies of us attached to part of our being." the hunter muttered.

"Cheap fucking tricks by some weak spellcaster who probably isn't within one hundred miles of here, coward!" the Belmont spat out at the lackey creatures, "That's why these demons are so weird, they aren't regular demons. They are spells all shifted together to fool us and do what their master commands."

"Makes...sense." Adrian winced and steadied himself on his feet, "My guess is that most of their magic went into this spell with our blood, not the small fledglings." he agreed, "We hurt them, we're hurting each other."

Everything held at a standstill for the moment, the copies were grinning in sync like they were enjoying their real-selves turmoil over this. "Shit, I know I've heard and read on this kind of spell...I can't fucking remember how to get around it!" Trevor swore and adjusted his hand around his whip, "I wish Sypha were here, she'd know what to do."

Adrian mentally agreed, when it came to fighting he and Trevor had that down, certain knowledge he was profound in but Sypha was unmatched when it came to magic spells and knowledge of that type. She would have sussed what to do in moments of being in this situation.

"Maybe we need to exhaust the spell." the vampire suggested, his lover glanced at him a bit worried before responding.

"That would work but we don't know how strong this person is or how long they can hold the spell." They didn't have much of a choice at the moment so silently they agreed, each of them tried to give their doppelgangers the runaround.

Dodging whenever possible, sparring back only when they knew that they would and could be blocked with an ease. Trevor already felt guilty about wounding his lover but now was not the time to worry over it, Adrian was strong and one cut wouldn't bring him down.

The dopples weren't fighting hard, they shared the same style and moves as their real-life copies but seemed purposefully slow and watchful, studying their targets. As Trevor made another attack that was easy to block the Adrian double let it hit, the real vampire let out a cry and fell to his knees at the sudden pain.

"Adrian! Shit I'm sorry!" Trevor yelled in mild panic, his eyes turned away from the fight. With an abundant strength the fake Adrian tackled him, pinning him roughly to the ground with all of its strength, enough to leave bruises later where it gripped as Trevor struggled. "Rrr fucking get off of me you piece of shit! Adrian be careful these things are up to something!"

Holding his chest, now bleeding a good deal from the double wound, Adrian panted and looked up as the other Trevor approached him and looked down at its prey kneeling hurt. It spoke in a female voice but it's mouth never moved.

"When I heard that Dracula had a son I expected a ferocious monster, instead what do I find? A tender half breed so engrossed in love with his pet that he won't fight back against me so not to damage it." it heckled, "Pathetic, disgusting, and just like your father...just lacking his conviction."

"Who the hell are you?" Adrian's gold eyes glared up into the creature he refused to harm.

The doppelganger held up its shadowy whip not to attack but began to calmly and slowly twist it around Adrian's shoulders and tie it like a rope, "My name is Mara, you'll meet me soon enough half-breed. Take a last look at your human pet, you won't be seeing him again. Alive at least." it laughed again like before the shadow enwrapped and completely consumed Adrian. "Trevor!" he yelled at the same time Trevor called out for him.

"Adrian!"

All of the demons, the smoke, the liquid they'd bled, it all disappeared along with Adrian and Trevor jumped to his feet surveying what was left. Nothing, just him. " _Adrian_!" he yelled one more, "Shit, shit!" the Belmont ran a hand through his hair and pulled at the brown strands, slowly the man slid down to his knees and sat there on the ground.

His mind reeling of what just happened, the morning had been perfect. He and Adrian spent time together, talked, played, teased each other, and out of nowhere he'd been taken from Trevor and there was nothing he could do about it. It was one of his worst dreams come true.

"Trevor!" a familiar deep voice yelled through the air as a blur shifted through the trees and was suddenly kneeling on a single knee before the brunette. "Adrian, where is Adrian?" Dracula asked in a hurry, touching Trevor's shoulders and looking him over with blood red eyes checking for wounds.

"It... _she_...took him." still with a hand clenched in his hand Trevor shook his head for a moment and tried to contain his anger, his worry, all of his emotions. "We were surrounded and-"

"There's no need to explain right now, let's get you home first."

\\\\\///\\\\\///

Sitting in Lisa's infirmary the woman was wrapping up the minor cut on his arm with worry held in her eyes. She was trying to hold herself together but as her hands shook it was blatant that her mind was solely on her son's welfare. "I don't understand what happened." she said finishing up and turning to look at her husband for answers. "Explain it to me."

"I..." the vampire almost looked speechless, defeated, guilty, in front of his loving wife.

"Explain it to me!" she demanded, "I- _we_ -!" she gestured to Trevor, "Have a right to know what the hell is going on! I know you know!"

"It's a long explanation.." his voice was soft and quiet. Trevor urged and moved to stand, "Tell us, or we can't help Adrian."

"Very well." Dracula sighed but began. "Hundreds of years ago there was this woman, Mara, I didn't know her as a human but when I came across her she'd been recently turned and was slaughtering people in villages like a rabid animal."

"I ended up taking her under my wing to help her gain some control of what she was, we were friends, allies, and for a time...lovers." Vlad looked to his wife with worry but saw no jealousy in her eyes. Lisa was understanding in too many ways, including knowing that her husband could have had many lovers in his long lifespan.

"Mara was an immensely strong spellcaster and being immortal only improved her skill and powers, she gathered ingredients, items, things that made her more and more powerful. Soon I'd realized that her lust for power was almost as great as her murderous intent, it wasn't anything specific that she spited. Anything that displeased her died, humans, vampires, other creatures, woodland animals."

"It was when she slaughtered an entire maternity ward in a clinic that I finally saw there was no hope for quelling her rage of everything alive." Even hateful of humanity Dracula had never gone to the lengths Mara had without reason. "If I let her be she would soon destroy all of Transylvania, then kill Wallachia, she could have become powerful enough to kill even me."

"So I gathered my own resources and cast a spell of my own to trap her. Mara's body lies in a coffin deep within her own castle, staked through the stomach with a special stake I made infused with wolfsbane and my spell. It keeps her trapped and confined to her coffin. The spell required some of my blood so in a way she and I...are connected, I cannot harm her, and she cannot harm me."

An understanding washed over Trevor and Lisa, the hunter muttered, "So she decided to take Adrian to punish you..."

"Yes." the vampire said regrettably. "I thought the spell would hold longer but lately I've felt it wavering, that's why I've been holed up by myself. I have been researching and trying to find a way to dispose of her or trap her more soundly...I...I am so sorry my love, I never meant to worry you, I never meant for any of this to happen. Can you ever forgive me?"

"I am downright furious with you." Lisa's eyes burned with fiery anger as she tightly crossed her arms and clenched her fists, "I don't want to talk about forgiveness of any kind until Adrian is home and safe with us."

"You're right." he muttered back and looked to Trevor, "I am sorry Trevor, I will do everything in my power to fix this." It was obvious on Dracula's face that even with all his time looking for answers hadn't given him anything, he was stuck. Vlad couldn't harm Mara and that sort of blood spell normally meant you had to stay a certain distance from the other as well or risk the spell breaking itself.

"She must've been gathering whatever strength she could all of these years to cast those spells and send demons here to look for him..." Trevor said starting to pace, his Belmont mind starting to work overtime on the problem. "You can't go, but I can."

"No, Trevor don't you dare!" Lisa turned to him, "What if you don't come back!? What if neither of you comes back!? You didn't create this problem!"

"I didn't but I love Adrian!" he said back loudly, "I promised to always be by his side and watch over him and that includes now! I am packing up and going to that castle to get him back." There would be no talking him out of this.

Both parents eyes held more worry than before but neither tried to talk him down further, and surprisingly Dracula hadn't made a comment about Trevor loving Adrian, he must've known just like Lisa had. "Try not to worry." Trevor said more calmly and forced the tiniest of smiles, "Belmont's are supposed to be good at this stuff right? Traversing castles, rescuing loved ones, and killing monsters."

That made even the Lord Dracula smile with some hope, "Oh they are good at it, I know first hand. If there was anyone I'd trust to fetch Adrian, it would be you. That doesn't make me worry any less for your being, you are practically my son."

It felt nice to hear, Trevor and Dracula always knew how each other felt without saying it, but it was nice to hear. "I love you both, you're my family and I'd go march into that castle for anyone of you."

"It may be hard but I insist you stay the night." Dracula said then, "Get what rest you can, Lisa and I will prepare some things for you. Tomorrow I will move the castle as close to Mara's castle as I can."

With a curt nod Trevor agreed, "Thank you, I...I'm going to try to rest." Actually he went to soak in a long bath until his eyes could barely stay open, Adrian never leaving his thoughts bu his mind playing out many scenarios as to what could happen tomorrow. He probably wouldn't live through it even if he saved Adrian from that woman.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

The darkness had swallowed him entirely and once Adrian's mind came back to himself moments later he was kneeling in the throne room to a castle. One that was dusty, covered in spider webbing and that had obviously gone unused or loved for centuries based on the layers of dust.

Candles filled the otherwise empty room keeping it lit for him to see that glowed a dark purple light and exuding a spell. A spell that was affecting his vampire side, draining him of energy and keeping him down to his knees like heavy weights were pulling him down.

"Where...?"

The Trevor doppelganger stood before him still, wide grin upon its face. "You're in my castle." the female voice said, "My name is Mara and you must be Alucard. I've heard of you in human whispers, but that's not what that adorable boy called you is it? What was it that he called you? Hmmm oh yes..."

" _Adrian_." finally the doubles mouth moved and it sounded just like Trevor, Adrian's eyes went wide.

"What do you want?"

"I _want_ this spell off of me, I _want_ to cause you and your family pain and suffering!" the woman cried from behind her puppet. "I'll start with you and then move on to your mother, then your father, and then whoever else I see fit. Let's also not forget your pet, I supposed I'll start with him."

"Don't you dare fucking touch him!" Adrian snarled with a ferocity and managed to stumble to his feet even under the spell.

"Aw how touching, you must really think you love him. That's perfect." The shadowy double reached to steal the sword out of Adrian's hand with one good yank and lifted it, pressing the sharp blade to its throat and still grinning.

"Adrian." it said again in his voice.

With wide gold eyes the half-vampire tried to step forward and reach out to the sword but fell down to his hands and knees with a gasp, every part of his body felt like it weighed several tons. "Don't! Don't hurt him!" he begged still.

"Adrian." it repeated, "We're connected to them, right?" Then making constant eye contact the double sliced the sword through its own throat, the sword hit the ground with a clanging noise as the black liquid poured everywhere in front of Adrian.

The shadow fell to the ground, smile still in place. The lack of color didn't matter, Adrian could imagine and see his lover lying on the ground back near the river with his throat cut through by Adrian's own blade. Dead and no one there to hold him, no one knowing he was there and left to rot or be trampled on by bugs and little critters. Dead, and Adrian wasn't there to make the decision to turn him. They'd never even talked about that possibility before.

In complete shock Adrian's hands shook and he crawled a few inches up to the body and touched its cheek, it felt cold, he knew it wasn't Trevor but it looked like him. He could imagine it was him. Cold tears started raining from his eyes, "He's dead...?"

"What do you think Alucard? Would I hesitate to kill him?"

No. She wouldn't.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: First of all thank you to everyone who has/has been reading, commenting, bookmarking, and leaving kudos! I appreciate every single one of you more than you could imagine.
> 
> The next chapter is going to be the final. I'm very excited because I've really been wanting to write the ending but I'm also sad, I've been having a great time writing this for everyone. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the fic!


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter. Everything comes to a close.

Trevor didn't get much sleep that night, he awoke early and found Lisa and Dracula sitting in the kitchen with cups of tea trying to calm their own nerves. He joined them for a bit in stiff silence but as the sun slowly rose outside none of them wanted to wait any longer.

He watched Dracula move the castle somewhere in Transylvania, Trevor was unfamiliar with this country and the area itself but even from here he could see the other castle poking over the horizon.

"Trevor..." the tall vampire said as the castle settled in its new temporary spot. "Remember, Mara is powerful but she is confined to her coffin and by a powerful spell. She's limited to what she can do and what spells she can muster. It's taken her years to gather enough strength to pull off whatever she is trying to accomplish here."

Slowly the younger man nodded, "Thanks, I'll keep that all in mind, I promise I'll do everything I can to get Adrian home." his wording didn't escape the old vampire who reached to put a firm hold on Trevor's shoulder.

"Make sure to do everything you can to bring yourself home too, we would mourn no less for you." That was about the closest thing to an _I love you_ plus a hug that he would probably ever get from Dracula now at his current age. "I'll try."

He hugged Lisa before leaving and watched the struggle in his adoptive parent's eyes as he walked out of the castle he called home. Trevor wore a new outfit worthy of a hunter and embroidered on the back with the Belmont crest, a present from both Lisa and Dracula they had been saving to give to him when he turned twenty and was officially out of his teens. Now seemed like a more fitting time for it.

A sword on one hip, his whip on the other, a dagger hidden in each boot. Lisa had packed him several strips of dried meat and several water canteens, then some basic medicines and bandages. Dracula had contributed himself with a bottle of holy water and a special stake that was stained bloodred, probably with real blood, and embedded with wolfsbane in it just like he'd said was used in his spell.

Looking it over as he walked Trevor's eyes widened noticing a small note attached, he opened it without hesitation. In perfect writing it read,

_Trevor,_

_I didn't want to tell Lisa until you'd already left, but I know you'll do the right thing._

_If you can manage to pierce Mara's heart with this stake it will kill her, and me. If you find no other choice I wish for you to do this to save yourself and Adrian, please try not to be frightened to do so, no one would blame you. Don't feel guilty if you must._

_I'm sorry to put so much on your shoulders, you are still so small even being so grown. Whatever you decide, I know you will make the right decision._

_Take care._

A fail-safe, that's what Dracula had given him. If there was no other way out of that castle, if things went that far south, there was a fail safe to keep Mara contained and likely save at least Adrian even if it cost them Dracula's life. Trevor hated the thought but stuffing the stake back into his bag he wouldn't forget about it.

Getting closer the Belmont internally recited everything about magic he knew from what he'd read over the years and what Sypha had taught him. He longed for her company and unwavering upbeat attitude right now, he'd left her a letter in his room back at the castle for if some reason he didn't make it back home.

Blood magic was something she'd mentioned to him before, it wasn't something one should try lightly. Something like a blood pact was powerful and bonding but if broken it would slowly poison the person until death consumed them or someone strong enough was able to lift the oath forcefully.

Not only did such a person have to be strong but meticulous with steady magic and hands. Finding someone like that in a short amount of time was nearly impossible most of the time. Sometimes blood made a difference as well, the strong blood between Dracula and Mara was such a mixture that it had bonded them so tightly they would die if the magic was tweaked the wrong way. Mara had the skill and strength if she built it up, her problem was that a spellcaster couldn't break a spell on themselves.

He knew the time of day beforehand but as soon as he pushed the doors of the castle in and stepped inside, they slammed shut, and everything became dark. Even the candles that lit up the rooms and halls were colored purple and barely shed any light on anything.

They were like a pathway showing him where to go, up the throne room and down endless hallways he didn't know, then descended down into the basement. Like back home the basement was filled with chambers, cells, to hold creatures and people in changes. Unlike back home most of these cells were filled, everything inside of them lay dead in their shackles, most of them decayed down to bones and covered in dust.

"What do you want, witch?" a hoarse voice called just barely above a whisper as his footsteps approached the end of the hall. His steps turned into a run and finally Trevor slid on his knees and grabbed the bars of the final cell, "Adrian!" he cried out in relief but the sight before him was horrifying.

His love was strung up on chains, forced to sit up on his knees but had long since lost energy to hold himself up so Adrian was leaning forward and letting the chains themselves hold him. The chains were digging into his pale wrists but there must have been something about them, some spell or something sharp on the insides because slowly Adrian was being drained of blood, it was all slowly leaking down his arms and leaving him paler than Trevor had ever seen. "Adrian!" he called again.

"Nm...Trevor..?" Adrian mustered but didn't look up, like he didn't believe Trevor was there in front of him but was instead hallucinating from blood loss. "I miss you..What do I do without you...?"

"I'm right here, hey I'm right here!" Trevor banged his hands on the iron bars but grabbed one of his boot daggers and expertly picked the lock, or broke it, he didn't care to check as he flung the door open. Doing the same to the chains while he held Adrian up the blond went slack when his arms were released, the Belmont held him safely in his arms but helped lower him down into a more comfortable sitting position against the wall. "Shit what did that crazy bitch do to you?"

He looked the inside of the chains over, there were spiked insides that matched the bleeding holes on poor Adrian's wrists. Trevor did his best cleaning the wounds and wrapping them with what Lisa had sent along in the pack, including the whip wound that had scabbed over along Adrian's chest, but it wasn't enough. "Hey, hey it's alright I'm right here." he repeated and pulled at his shirt sleeve pulling it up to his elbow.

"Take some so that you'll start to heal." The blond's head just bobbed and couldn't even peek his eyes open, Trevor swore under his breath. "I can't believe I'm doing this." With his dagger the hunter sliced a shallow cut over his wrist and held it to Adrian's lips, that would entice his vampire instincts to drink. Getting him to stop would be another obstacle he'd face here in a few minutes.

Fangs took no wait sinking into the already bleeding wrist and Trevor winced and grunted, with his lover not in sound mind there would be no pleasurable bliss from this experience. Whatever Adrian was thinking about would likely seep into his power and flow into Trevor's mind.

Whatever it was the vampire dreamt of, it was painful. A great deal of pain shot up Trevor's arm and started to consume his body, first instinct was to pull away but Adrian grabbed the arm to hold it still and keep drinking. "Nn...y-yeah keep drinking, it's fine.." he muttered but counted the seconds.

It was something they'd practiced before, counting seconds for blood flow to know around how much Adrian was drinking just in case he lost track of himself. "That's enough." he said ready to put a stop to it, "Adrian you've drunk enough you can have more later!"

Trevor yanked his arm away with great force, surprisingly enough Adrian didn't cling anymore to him or lung to take another drink but the way the brunette had pulled his arm tore the skin along the fangs and made him bleed more. "Fuck me." Patching himself up sloppily with just a messy bandage before gathering his things.

Slinging Adrian's arm around him Trevor held onto the half-vampire's waist and started slowly walking down the corridor. This all felt too easy, there was no way Mara was just going to let them walk out of here but if he could at least get the blond outside maybe he could deal with the vampire himself without putting his love in any danger.

Almost to the stairs Adrian coughed and lifted the arm Trevor didn't have a hold on to wipe his bloody mouth weakly, "I...I thought you were dead.." his voice tired and cumbersome. "That double it-it.." he swallowed thickly around the bloody taste in his mouth, "It slit its own throat."

"Takes more than some shitty half-assed spell to kill me." Trevor said back softly with a bit of pep in his voice to make it seem like everything would be fine. "Glad to see you're back in your right mind." Likely Mara hadn't wanted to waste energy on keeping that spell connected to Trevor, either way neither of them were complaining.

Besides someone so bitter and vengeful, she knew Trevor would have come to the rescue, she'd rather torture and kill the real him in front of Adrian. Just like she wanted to do with Lisa in front of Dracula.

Reaching back upstairs to the throne room that feminine voice echoed off of the walls, or out of the shadows more likely. "You two are absolutely disgusting to watch. Did you know that?" Trevor was already settling Adrian down to the side with his pack and helping him drink a bit of water.

"You must be Mara, let's talk." Double checking the hunter made sure he had all of his weapons, blades, whip, holy water bottle on his belt along with the stake in one of the holsters. He still had no idea where the coffin was and Trevor wasn't going to leave Adrian here to fend for himself, Mara wasn't going to let either of them go anywhere in her castle without hordes of spells flinging at them.

No, he had to settle this here and now.

"Yes little Belmont, let's talk." she roused, one of her corporeal smoke figures stepping forward without any real shape to it. "You won't ever find my real body I hope you know."

"I do, those circumstances aren't in my favor. I'd like to purpose a deal." he said instead.

Mara laughed, "A deal? What sort of Belmont _are_ you? Belmont's don't make deals with beasts of the night or even joke of it, you're not like any Belmont I've heard of or met."

"I'm not your run of the mill Belmont at all if you haven't noticed. Raised by Dracula and his wife, and my lover is their half-vampire son." he stated openly. "So let's make a deal."

"I'm listening."

Standing up Trevor pulled away from where his lover sat, despite the blond weakly trying to hold him in place and tell him not to go and not to do something stupid. The hunter stepped into the middle of the room only feet away from the shadows dark silhouette.

For a brief moment he wondered if all of his predecessors were this scared fighting big evils like he was about to, scared when they decided to make a big sacrifice like he was planning. No, all of them would have stabbed him for making a deal with the devil. But if it succeeded the Tepes family could live happily.

"Let's make a blood pact-" a desperate _Trevor don't!_ was called from the side that he ignored. "We fight, I promise not to kill you but you don't have to do the same. I know you don't have self-control. If you kill me, you get to see them suffer from my death and I promise you Adrian will give you a vial of his blood willingly so you can break your spell easier. You promise to leave the Tepes family alone otherwise, you aren't allowed to harm them, ever." confidently the hunter put a hand on his hip and cocked his head smiling.

Trevor personally knew of two ways to break blood type spells other than the original caster ending it. One was to bleed out an unwilling victim containing the blood you needed, or to have a sample of that same blood but willingly given.

"And if _you_ win somehow without killing me, Belmont?" Mara spat from the shadows.

"If I win you never harm or bother any of the Tepes family again and I let you wreak havoc in Transylvania. You're smart, in another few hundred years I'm sure you could build up the strength to break that spell on your own." but their blood pact would remain, Dracula, Lisa, Adrian would always be safe from her. "You can see I'm desperate here lady, you're getting something out of this no matter what."

"And what if I just decide to kill you here and now without all of this blood pact you offer?"

"See the thing is, you can't." Plucking the holy water off of his belt the woman hissed and the shadow shivered feeling the power from it. "You're strong much weaker than you present yourself to be, sending all of those spell creatures so far away from this castle was surely draining. My guess is if I threw this holy water you're still susceptible enough that it would keep you distracted long enough to let Adrian and I get out of here."

"Smart little Belmont, okay then it begs the question, why don't you do just that instead of offering yourself as a piece of meat?"

"Because that's a short-term solution for my family, you'll come back stronger and more driven with intent to kill not capture." he answered. "When I leave here I intend for my family to be safe so that I can rest easy, alive or dead." Again Adrian was making some nasty comments from the side but his strength had yet to return, and that spell still held over the castle to keep him weak.

"If you do this I won't forgive you Trevor." again the young blond was ignored completely.

"Very well, I accept your terms Trevor Belmont. We shall shed blood at the same time and commit to our pact."

Situating the holy water back on his belt he held a dagger instead and moved closer to the shadow. "You can bleed threw that thing right?"

The shadow mirrored Trevor, forming something humanoid and cut its wrist with its own shadow as Trevor cut himself with the dagger reopening his wound from the bite mark. The shadow spewed the black ooze from before and said, "Yes, this is my blood. An item I acquired many centuries ago allows me to control shadows but one of the prices is being filled with...this."

"Gross." Trevor made a face but held out his hand ready to begin.

The shadow mimicked and took his hand, pressing the open wounds together, "I, Mara Botez, make a blood oath to fight Trevor Belmont. If I win I earn the right to a bottle of Dracula's son's blood willingly given to break my curse, and the right to enter their home and watch them suffer over their loss all I want. In return I promise to never physically harm them."

"So morbid.." Trevor grunted but cleared his throat. "I, Trevor Belmont, make a blood oath to fight Mara Botez. I will not kill her or face the pact consequences, If I win I earn the right to leave freely with Adrian, Mara will never bother us again. In return I promise to never interfere with her inside of Transylvania's borders no matter what the reason. If we both die then the oath is null and void."

The blood mixing between them stung and the magic from the common spell swirled int he air showing that the pact took place. Mara's shadow began to step backward and said, "I hope you know that once I'm free of the curse Dracula pierced me with I am very powerful, I can find plenty of ways to interfere with your little family without harming the pact. I intend to win by killing you."

"I do, but this is the best I can do under these circumstances." Trevor agreed and unraveled his whip.

"Thank you, for all of your delicious blood by the way, this will help in my easy win." Like the previous day once the shadow had some blood it began to change, but this time the shape wasn't vague.

It looked just like Trevor, every single detail was right and almost solid but still colored like shadow. "I'm sure you remember how this spell works don't you?"

"Yeah." the brunette gave a shaky smile but began to fight.

He held his own against the double, which was tough seeing as it had most of his own skill along with being commanded by a once very powerful vampiress spellcaster. She seemed to enjoy toying with him and dragging the fight out, knocking Trevor around with scrapes and bruises but not going for a kill shot.

Trevor, on the other hand, had caused a lot of his own minor wounds but wasn't holding back, he _was_ going in for a kill much to Mara's surprise and Adrian's desperate cries against.

"You really have a death wish don't you?" She laughed, "Fine if you're so desperate to have Alucard watch you die then I won't stop you any longer, I tire of this game." She assumed Trevor's idea was to kill himself from the start and let that part of their pact take fold.

"Hah, you speak so highly for someone who isn't doing any work herself! It's just me fighting myself!" Trevor egged on.

"Fine, you want to see who is about to kill you? Very well I will grant your last wish Belmont!"

In a display of strength the shadow glowed and changed into a womanly shape with messy hair as it charged at him ready to strike. Trevor didn't move but glanced to the side with sorrow on his face, "Adrian, I'm sorry." he said and began to pull something out just as the shadow woman threw its blade-like arm through his stomach and not pulling it out.

She grinned and started to use more of her magic to project more of her actual body seeing as she'd won, become more colored and less of a shadow as she began to laugh. "Finally, finally I'm going to be free of this curse to do what I want again! Thank you little Belmont for setting me free!"

Feeling hot blood running up his throat Trevor coughed and spit it up into Mara's face on purpose and started to smile. "Thanks for being really predictable." Lifting his hand Trevor held the stake made with wolfsbane, now his own blood from the wound washed over the entire thing voiding out Dracula's dried blood in the spell.

Seeing the fear in Mara's dusty eyes the bleeding hunter laughed, "Oh you recognize this? Then you know the intention of the blood owner in the spell is what matters most. My intentions? To kill us both."

As she screeched but before Mara could pull away Trevor did his family proud by jamming the large and sharp bloody stake straight through the middle of Mara's heart with precise precision. Her screams were louder as the spell burned into her skin, the wolfbane mixed with Trevor's hearty blood started to sizzle and then exploded inside of her chest.

The shadow exploded with a force of wind along with black blood that then sizzled away just like Mara's real body likely had. Trevor had succeeded, he'd gotten her to project just enough of herself for the spell to work, it had been risky and the hunter had been ready to die trying but fate had smiled upon him for once.

With the spellcaster gone the spell holding Adrian down left with her, jumping to his feet the half-vampire rushed to Trevor's side. He was bleeding badly and had gone deathly pale, if the wound didn't kill Trevor then the backfire from going against the blood pact surely would within the day.

He'd promised to fight without killing Mara, obviously that was a lie. "Trevor you absolute _moron!_ "

"Adrian just, calm down...I knew what I was doing...for the most part."Trevor began to slur, the blond pulled him close and tried to stop the bleeding by pressing bandages from the pack to the wound. "Why do you always do this shit!?' he yelled at the bleeding man, "You sacrifice yourself like you mean nothing!"

"M'sorry...I'm sorry, please I'm sorry Adrian. Don't be angry." There was no wit, no joy or explanation to Trevor's voice. "I'm so tired, please don't be mad."

"No no, I'm not mad I'm just-! I, I'm worried Trev. You're bleeding a lot, stay awake and I promise not to be mad."

His eyelids just felt so heavy but his body felt light and numb, drifting away didn't feel as bad as he'd expected. "Sorry...s'rry..." hearing Adrian talking to him Trevor's head drifted into a fuzzy nothingness.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

When he woke up again Trevor felt like he'd only taken a short nap, closed his eyes and woken up an hour later, but he felt completely refreshed compared to how he'd passed out. That and he woke up in his own bed back in the castle, looking around the room he muttered, "Was it all...a dream?"

Sitting up the man expected there to be an ache or pain but nothing, his body felt healthy and stronger than it had in quite a while. Lifting his shirt to see where Mara had plunged through him there was now a pink scar, fresh yet completely healed over, and the same went with all of his other wounds. They were all healed up, he wasn't sore, even all of his known bruises had disappeared. "What in the...?"

Letting out a small gasp Trevor touched his teeth with his thumb, running it along the edges of his top rows looking for any fangs, nothing. His teeth were all normal, but now that he thought about it his body felt like it was running cooler. Before the summer weather had been overheating him easily and he could tell that the heat had not let up one bit since he passed out, but his body felt nice and cool. Unbothered by the temperatures in the castle.

"Scratch what I said, _this_ must be a dream." he mumbled under his breath, looking his body over once more but finding no other changes. Trevor peeked his head out of his doorway, the hallways were empty, so he headed straight for the kitchen. He felt like he hadn't eaten in days.

As he approached Trevor could hear calm voices talking from the kitchen and he slowed his steps, carefully edging his way over and pressing his back to the wall to hear what was being said.

"I'm sorry Adrian, I haven't found any other spells that will help. I think at this point all we can do is hope that what we've done will be enough and give it time." Sypha said. Why was Sypha here, and how? With the route they took yearly her Speaker group should have been halfway across Wallachia during the summer.

"That isn't good enough, I'll keep looking myself." Adrian said with a quick snap in his voice.

Why was he hiding again? Trevor shook his head and felt his heart beating quickly, he didn't know why he was nervous but it couldn't be helped. Slowly he moved into the doorway and scratched the back of his head, "Hey uh...morning...you two?" he said unsure of himself.

Jumping up so quickly that he knocked his chair over Adrian was in front of Trevor within a split second, holding the Belmont's arms tightly and looking him over. "You're awake! When..?"

"Just uh, a few minutes ago honestly. Great nap, I feel amazing, whatever you two did really did the trick." he began to smile but his nervousness wasn't dying down. Something was up, something felt off, not bad but off for sure.

Two pairs of eyes stared at him but blinked slowly, Sypha made her way over to also look him up and down checking herself to make sure Trevor was alright. "You've been in a type of coma for a bit over a month Trevor. We...we're just surprised to see you awake all of a sudden."

"A month!?' he exclaimed and started to pull away from Adrian's hands to get some space. "Holy shit, no wonder I feel so rested. What happened?"

Adrian fell quiet so Sypha spoke up, "You were badly wounded, not to mention you were a complete idiot to put a blood pact on yourself that you were intentionally going to break. Those type of spells are nearly impossible to remove without a person's body giving out." Crossing her arms a bit angrily the fierce woman knew Trevor knew all of that, she'd taught him about such pacts.

"Sorry it, it was just all I could think of to protect everyone."

"Everyone but yourself, typical Trevor." she scoffed but sighed as her shoulders relaxed, "I'm also sorry, we've just been worried sick. Adrian found me as fast as he could after bringing you back to this castle and I managed to lift the pact off of you."

"She was at it for nearly twenty hours straight." the vampire managed to add in, giving credit where credit was due.

"Yes but the only reason your body was strong enough to handle it all was because Adrian had been giving you some of his blood." Sypha also added then everyone went silent.

"Oh." Trevor muttered, "So that's why I healed so well."

The blond nodded but didn't say anything else strangely enough.

"The odd combination of vampire blood and removing the pact from you ended up fighting with each other in a way and put you into that coma. We weren't sure if you would ever wake up let alone how you would be when you did." the redhead said gently. "It looks like for once everything turned out pretty well, you look great and I can already sense that the blood oath doesn't hold anything on you anymore."

"Physically I feel great." Trevor promised, letting everything sink in he was finally ready for some much needed affection. He stepped over and hugged Adrian tightly, they embraced for a long moment and a cool hand held the back of his head until they parted. Next he moved to hug Sypha and said, "Thanks, I swear you're always coming to my rescue for something."

As she hugged back the woman giggled softly into his shoulder, "Someone has to look after you when Adrian is busy. You're a magnet for trouble Trevor Belmont."

Parting from her he looked over to Adrian, "So am I like...a vampire now?"

"It doesn't appear so. I'm only half so I wasn't entirely sure what would happen when I gave you blood, other than I was sure it would help you heal. Mother and Father have been watching over you, testing your blood for its qualities." he let everything pause for a moment as is gathering what he was going to say exactly.

"My blood seems to have boosted your immune and healing systems and cooled your natural body temperature, from what they could tell it hadn't affected your muscles. They did say you might have bursts of energy for a while and possibly it could boost your lifespan if you drink regularly."

Regularly, like Adrian did from him? The long lifespan is what had caught his attention, it was always something they'd worried about before, Trevor dying long before Adrian ever would. They'd talked about it but never decided on an answer if Trevor wanted someone to turn him, they'd both thought that they had time to mull it over. Obviously not.

"How often would I have to drink?"

"Father estimated a mouthful every two weeks." that was around half of what Adrian usually consumed so it didn't sound that awful. They could share, Trevor's body created blood that Adrian needed and in return the vampires stronger blood could help Trevor become less of a brittle human being so they could stay together.

"We should definitely talk about that later." the brunette suggested, Adrian perked up obviously thinking Trevor would have rejected the idea completely. "Yes, of course."

When Lisa and Dracula returned from being out the woman gasped and dropped her basket of dinner ingredients to run and hug Trevor to her with a vice grip. He couldn't help but laugh a bit but hug her back, looking over her shoulder as Dracula. The vampire had a hood up to avoid sunlight that he lowered and gave Trevor a gentle smile but said nothing.

He never ended up asking how things went between Dracula and Lisa before he'd awoken but they must have come to an agreement and worked things out together at some point. After a few days of being monitored by everyone just in case he rarely saw them stray from each others side, Dracula was like a lovesick puppy constantly asking his wife if he could help her with anything.

Seems the time he'd spent away from her had been hard on him as well, then again there was nothing like your kids being in danger to bring parents together.

Sypha had been with Trevor most of the time over those few days but whenever she wasn't and wasn't looking through their vast library she was usually by Adrian's side. The blond had warmed up to her more than the last time they were all together, you couldn't tell if you didn't know Adrian but Trevor noticed and Sypha seemed able to tell she was welcomed company as well.

Adrian wasn't a huge talker when it was just he and another person but whenever Sypha spoke he listened intently and tried his best to make comments on whatever she spoke of. Trevor could catch him smiling at times and had heard him make some morbid jokes, they usually left Sypha blinking but then she would playfully shove the vampire's arm and laugh.

It felt good to have everyone he loved closeby for a time, they wouldn't all be together forever but Trevor soaked up all of the time he could.

Sypha stuck around for another two weeks and during that time they were all three thick as thieves, hanging out, doing things together, arguing, making stupid jokes. And not a single thing went wrong, nothing came out of the woods trying to kill them, no villagers tried to give them shit, nothing went wrong with Trevor.

A few days before she left it was just the two of them, Trevor and Sypha, Adrian was with his mother giving blood to stock up on in the future. If the longevity worked well for Trevor then it would for Lisa as well, but somehow Trevor had the feeling maybe in a few more years she might ask Dracula to turn her so they could be together forever. The vampire would never push it, just as Adrian never pushed the issue with Trevor.

But yes it was just the two of them talking in Trevor's room, that's when Sypha found the goodbye letter he'd written in case he didn't return from Mara's castle. She read quite a bit of it before Trevor snatched it away from her.

"Shit don't read that! This was only meant for you if I _died_ Sypha!" he began to laugh until he saw his friend's eyes tearing up. "Did it upset you that much? I know I"m a shitty writer but I tried my best."

"It's not that, I'm just really happy you're okay. Let me read the rest." she moved onto her tiptoes to snatch the paper back and read it. In messy handwriting it wrote:

_Dear Sypha,_

_Cliche yes but if you get this I must be dead. I've died protecting my family and that includes you, ever since we were young I've felt this connection to you that I can't explain. You mean the world to me much like Adrian does and I want you to know that._

_I've never been great with words but never forget how much I care about you._

_Trevor._

It was short and to the point, messy, and not even Trevor's first draft of writing. "You big sap." she said and touched a hand over Trevor's heart to feel it beat. "I feel the same, you're my best friend."

The Belmont placed his hand over hers and nodded, "Maybe Adrian and I will pass by you more often if we end up going traveling as he wants."

"Ah, you should!" she said with excitement, "There are so many wonderful things in the world to go see! I bet you haven't even been back to the Belmont estate in years, I pass it every year when I come to visit you during winter time."

"I wasn't planning to go back until you visited so we could clean it up like you said we should. But if I ever went to travel that would likely be my first stop." Trevor answered.

\\\\\///\\\\\///

The night after the morning Sypha had headed off to meet up with her Speakers something hung in the air between Adrian and Trevor.

When they got to Adrian's room that night for bed Trevor grabbed the blond by his shirt to roughly clash their mouths together. Things moved fast, their clothes strewn about the room without care, Trevor shoved Adrian back onto the bed to get into his lap and pin the vampire down by kissing him feverishly.

"I need you."

"I'm here for you Trev, as much as you need me."

They made love several times that night, feeling sated after each time but not long later one of them would initiate again. After the third it was all too much, Trevor's legs were shaking too much with pleasure tremors from Adrian constantly pounding at his prostate.

As Adrian curled up around him from behind Trevor held onto the vampire's arms that were around his waist. "Hey." he called sleepily, his eyes closed already and halfway asleep already.

"Yeah?" the blond muttered back in much the same state.

"I think we should go traveling sometimes, as you wanted. It sounds nice."

\\\\\///\\\\\///

It was almost the end of fall, the air was getting colder with each day, trees were naked and their leaves laying in piles on the ground underneath a thin layer of dusty white snow.

Trevor's warm boots crunched into the freshly fallen snow as Adrian asked, "You're sure the cold isn't too much?" They could see their breath in the air and they were both bundled up nicely as the wind started to blow across their faces.

"Nah, this isn't so bad. The heat slows me down but not so much the cold." heat had never meant many good things to him, cold on the other hand did.

"Good, because you're the one who insisted we leave now instead of waiting for spring to roll around." Adrian said as a scold but he smiled saying it. "So the plan still sounds okay? We'll head south until winter breaks and then go look at the sea." Neither of them had ever seen a sea or the ocean so they were both quite excited to check one out.

"Yeah that sounds good." Trevor said without really listening, Adrian gave him a scoff and light glare. "Hey I said I'd go anywhere with you didn't I?" All he'd asked was to make one stop before going anywhere else and they were nearly there.

Less than an hour later they came up to the old Belmont estate, Adrian helped him make a little makeshift cross from some sturdy logs and plant it into the ground. Hollowing out a small piece inside of the cross Trevor rolled up a piece of paper and hid it inside with a piece of cloth to keep it dry.

"Hopefully Sypha will find it when she comes this way soon enough, maybe she can catch up with us or meet us somewhere along the way to say hello." The letter was for their dear friend, it had a short note from both men and then a planned route written down where they would most likely be traveling at what time of year if she would be nearby and wanted to say hello.

"I'm sure she will, we'll see her before you know it." Adrian assured before beginning to walk again. "We should make some headway, find somewhere good to stop for the evening so we can warm up and ea- _Trevor Belmont!"_ the vampire yelled when a cold snowball hit him in the back of the head and started to slide down the back of his coat.

Trevor was laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world, holding his stomach and all. "You should have seen your face, you're so _angry_ Adrian! Haha!" Eyes widening he made a small squeal and started to run as his lover approached.

"I am going to bury you in this snow Trevor!" the angry vampire clenched his hands and started walking menacingly towards the hunter, only picking up speed when Trevor began to run away.

"Get back here!" he yelled.

"If you want to punish me you'll have to catch me first!" Trevor called from ahead, not really trying as he ran and purposefully let Adrian catch him quickly. They both slid with the force of impact and fell into soft snow, cushioned also by the leaves still underneath it all that went flying when they landed.

Chuckling in the back of his throat Trevor lifted his hands to wrap around his irate lover's neck and pull him down for a kiss that melded together softly.

Fluffy snow began to flutter down from the sky and coat the ground with a fresh coat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And that's a wrap. Thank you everyone for reading, I hope you really enjoyed the last chapter and happy ending! And happy holidays to anyone/everyone celebrating stuff during this time of year.


End file.
